


IT:Chaper Three (Home At Last: Return of the Missed Ones)

by Ashhlys



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Adult Losers Club (IT), Aged-Up Losers Club (IT), Alcohol, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Awkward Flirting, Ben Hanscom Loves Beverly Marsh, Ben Hanscom is a Good Friend, Beverly Marsh & Richie Tozier & Stanley Uris Friendship, Beverly Marsh & Richie Tozier Are Best Friends, Beverly Marsh Loves Ben Hanscom, Bill Denbrough & Eddie Kaspbrak Are Best Friends, Bill Denbrough Loves Stanley Uris, Bisexual Bill Denbrough, Blood and Injury, Body Dysphoria, Bottom Richie Tozier, Bottom Richie Tozier Rights, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Childhood Trauma, Creepy Pennywise (IT), Crying, Depression, Dreams and Nightmares, Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Recovery, Eventual Happy Ending, Explicit Language, F/M, Fix-It, Flashbacks, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Friendship, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, Gay Richie Tozier, Good Parent Maggie Tozier, Good Parent Wentworth Tozier, Graphic Description, Hair-pulling, I Made Myself Cry, IT Chapter Two Fix-It, Idiots in Love, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Injury Recovery, Insecurity, Internalized Homophobia, Kissing, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Mike Hanlon Has a Significant Other, Mike Hanlon Knows Everything, Mike Hanlon is a Good Friend, Minor Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Neck Kissing, Pansexual Stanley Uris, Possessive Eddie Kaspbrak, Possessive Richie Tozier, Post-Canon, Post-IT Chapter Two (2019), Praise Kink, Psychological Trauma, References to Depression, Richie Tozier & Stanley Uris Are Best Friends, Richie Tozier Calls Eddie Kaspbrak Nicknames, Richie Tozier Cries During Sex, Richie Tozier Has An Eating Disorder, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Sad Stanley Uris, Sexual Tension, Soft Richie Tozier, Spider Pennywise (IT), Stanley Uris Deserves Better, Stanley Uris Lives, Stanley Uris Loves Bill Denbrough, Swearing, Top Eddie Kaspbrak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:20:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 46,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26618083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashhlys/pseuds/Ashhlys
Summary: He couldn't be dead, could he? But Richie saw him, how limp his body was against his own, how warm his blood felt on his hand despite how cold his body actually was. He still couldn't believe it. All those years of denying, when Richie came to terms with himself, life had to take the only man he had ever loved for thirty years. But he never lost hope. And maybe that's why, the universe had some good news in the store for him. He just needed to be patient.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom & Beverly Marsh, Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough & Stanley Uris, Bill Denbrough/Stanley Uris, Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Mike Hanlon & Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 21





	IT:Chaper Three (Home At Last: Return of the Missed Ones)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, I suppose almost every IT fan was traumatised by the absurd ending of IT:Chapter Two. But I refused to accept it yet never really bothered to do something about it. But one day, an idea just struck me and I started to write this(I watched Eddie and Stan die over and over again to perfect the scenes).
> 
> And, I'm actually very proud of this one.
> 
> Please, enjoy!

"This is _not_ what we deserved, Eds." The man whispered as warm tears streamed down his face, his shaky fingertips grazing over the carving of twenty seven years he had just re-carved a few moments ago, his pocket knife still tightly clutched between the shaky fingers of his free hand.

It hadn't been much since the love of his life of thirty years died right before him. It still hurt; his wound was still too fresh to accept his death. The moment It impaled the man he loved that so unfortunately had been hovering above him at that very moment, the way he called his name before he got ripped away from him played over and over again in his mind. The way he hugged onto his body as the Neibolt house started to collapse over the ground it stood and the way he watched it break apart with Ben holding him back from running back inside and spending his very last moments beside Eddie.

Not even the _last_ thing he had on his mind was his own safety when he was kicking and pushing his friends, trying break free from their tight grasps to reach Eddie. he was screaming for them to let go, calling Eddie's name over and over again, hoping it would somehow miraculously bring the love of his life back. But in the end, it didn't work and Richie wasn't someone who believed in miracles anyway. Perhaps it was meant to be his last resort. He just had been wanting to be with Eddie for such a long time, even when he didn't know who he was waiting for. And when he found an opportunity to both come out and confess his long-forgotten love; that chance just _had_ to be taken away from him.

The man sighed and took his blood-stained glasses off, starting rubbing his eyes with his his fingers to prevent himself from crying any more, brushing his unruly and greasy hair back. He frowned at the uncomfortable feeling of oil on his palm, slowly standing up.

"How long has it been since I last showered?" He thought out loud, a weak, broken smile forming on his lips as he thought of a potential response Eddie could possibly give him if he could ever hear Richie say that phrase.

He sniffed his nose before putting his glasses back on and hugged Eddie's grey hoodie tightly, he left the Kissing Bridge with silent steps. He got into the red car that was waiting for him. He turned the ignition on and started the car to leave the starring place of his sweet yet painful memories. And as the man drove away, leaving the proof of his first and possibly the last love of his life, he failed to see a particularly interesting another carving. It was visibly neater than the man's and it took its place on the wooden fence of the bridge, towards the very bottom of the frame. It was a carving of two letters with a plus in between just like Richie's but was still significantly different.

It was a carving of the letter 'R' with a heart surrounding it, a plus bonding it to the letter 'E'. And by the looks of it, the 'R' was much older like someone had added the 'E' to the carving suspiciously recently.

He silently drove back to the hotel that the other Losers had already been checked out of, sighing deeply as he entered the old building. He gave a weak smile to the lady that was standing by the reception for the first time during his stay, starting to climb up the stairs. And as always, he didn't go to his own checked room. He turned towards a corridor, and opened the door of Eddie's room, walking inside.

The sight of his one untouched suitcase stood right next to the bed while the other one lying open on the floor, his once neatly done bed now messy and was missing its blanket broke the man's heart. But he wanted to stay _here_ instead of his own empty, alone room. He felt like he could connect with Eddie for he had the man's luggage; meaning he had his clothes, and of course, his smell. Oh, how much Richie loved the way the slightly shorter man smelled. It was warm, welcoming and homely. He was _Richie's home_.

He walked to the bed as he took the hoodie off and neatly folded it on the bed, quickly slipped out of his other clothes and randomly dropped them onto the floor, walking back towards the door to grab a towel from the shelf next to the bathroom door. He desperately needed to feel clean again. He deeply wished it would help him clear his mind a little as a bonus as well.

He placed the towel on the edge of the sink and turned the tap on, getting inside without waiting for the water to warm up, in an attempt to feel literally _anything_ other than grieve and sorrow. And he sure did feel something else as the icy cold water soaked his whole body, making the man shiver and curse out loud until it started to warm up eventually. He sighed and bit down onto his bottom lip as he felt tears fill his eyes once again.

" _Please_ tell me this is how it will be. First, it will be cold and hopeless, making me feel like shit. Then it will turn to a soothing warmness. A homely, reassuring one." His voice trembled as he stared down at the water droplets that fell into the tub after sliding down to his feet from his body.

"What do you think, Eds?"

His mocking tone soon died out, his last words came out of his mouth as choked out hiccups. The man broke into a loud, messy cry, his whole body starting to tremble. He turned the water off and grabbed onto his hair as he sobbed his heart out, soon he started to punch the bathroom wall next to him since he couldn't let his anger out enough by yanking at his own hair. He knew he needed this explosion and the man kept his punches coming until he felt his knuckles go completely numb; until only thing he could feel was the slight throb in the veins on his hands.

"Why did you leave me, you asshole?" He asked, no screamed, falling down to his knees in the cramped, small bathtub, he folded his hands over one another against his chest. "I knew you would never love me back but isn't this a bit too cruel, you dipshit? I waited thirty fucking years just for my best friend to die right in front of me?" His loud sobs were quieter now, just tears streaming down his face, soaking his already wet neck.

"You are so unfair, Eddie Spaghetti. But I guess that's what made me fall for you flat on my fucking ass."

He slowly stood up and turned the water back on, starting to slean his knuckles and the blood stains he had left on the wall,only starting to actually clean himself when his blood could no longer be seen against white tub anywhere. He stepped out when he finished his relatively long shower, grabbed the towel from the sink and dried himself with it, placing it on his head to prevent the droplets that fell from his hair to soak him once again.

He let out a small sigh as he brought his hands up to his face, transferring the escaped droplets of water from his forehead to his palms. His hands went towards the platform attached to the bottom of the mirror-cupboard above the sink to grab his glasses and he put them on, starting to examine his face. He could feel as well as see the facial hair he didn't want to own at all growing on his face.

He left the room for a moment and returned with a small, square toiletry bag. He placed it on the edge of the sink, making sure it wouldn't slip and fall down before opening the box, revealing the neatly organised shaving tools inside. He grabbed the tube of shaving cream and covered his face with it, smiling down at it fondly before placing it back to its place, grabbing the razor and shaving the hair that was too long for his taste off of his face.

He cleaned the razor before he dried it with the towel he still had laying on top of his head, then placed it back into the bag. He then turned the sink on and washed his face, feeling satisfied to finally get the remaining foam off of his skin. He stared at the sink underneath him, watching the water that ran through the inner surface like a waterfall, taking the foam and the cut hairs off from the inside of the sink before washing them down the drain.

He turned the faucet off but kept looking down into the white porcelain, suddenly feeling too exhausted to even make an attempt at raising his head. But he knew he would have to leave the bathroom sooner or later. He sighed, still continuing to watch the white material. For some reason it reminded him of Eddie's tan skin in contrast with its pale surface. He had missed his Eddie a lot.

He finally decided he should leave about now, groaning slightly before raising his eyebrows in confusion. The man felt a chill run up his spine followed by a burning sensation he felt in his belly made him wrinkle his face with discomfort. He wrapped one arm around it as he raised his head after looking down at where he felt the burning to make sure there were no cuts he had failed to notice when he was taking a shower. And the moment he did, the man's eyes shot open as his eyes met a painfully familiar pair through the mirror. He felt his heart clench at the sight of Eddie looking directly at him, seeing the thick blood dripping down from his mouth, a painful-looking wide smirk spread across his face. He gasped, spinning as he called the man's name.

"Eds!"

His hopeful eyes scanned the small bathroom, in search of the brown eyes he had longed for, only meeting with the empty doorway that led to the rest of the hotel room. He blinked a few times, the aching of his heart returned the moment he realised that Eddie was never here with him in the first place. He sighed deeply in disappointment, tightening his grip on his stomach when he felt the stinging ache again.

He turned back to the mirror, looking at the spot where he had saw(thought) Eddie stood, and placed his free hand on there, blocking his vision of that area.

"The things you do to me, Eddie," he sighed. "You finally drove me mad in a whole different way. You must be fucking proud of yourself, you fucking asshole."

He grabbed the toiletry bag that once belonged to his beloved Eddie and got out of the bathroom, returning back to the room. He walked over to the open suitcase to grab a pair of underwear and a black polo shirt, putting them on as he searched for something he could wear underneath. He gave up on looking when he found nothing that would fit him, deciding to just put his own pair of jeans before he grabbed his keys and wallet, forgetting to dry his hair completely. His eyes found his semi-wet hair, he shrugged with a deep sigh. He couldn't think about it now, he just wanted to get out of the room and finally eat something.

He left the room, taking one last look inside it, a small smile forming on his lips as he shut the door behind him. He was clean for the first time in a while. Richie felt good; at least, as good as he could possibly feel at that moment. He still carried his burden inside but from outside, he at least looked decent. And that's what he wanted right now: To look decent enough so he wouldn't raise any eyebrows and could avoid answering questions.

He walked down the stairs and saw the old woman at the reception re-arranging the keys for the rooms. She turned to face the man when he was at the bottom of the stairs, leaving no need for him to try and get her attention. She smiled at him, and Richie tried his best to mirror her smile, giving her a very awkward and forced one instead.

"Hi, I wanted to know when the hotel bar usually closes." The lady looked him up and down, scanning Richie's body for a moment before giving him a small smile.

"No time limits. You can help yourself whenever you want, young man." Richie gave her a tired smile. This time it wasn't forced so it didn't look as awkward.

"Thanks for calling me 'young'. That was the first compliment I have ever gotten in a long fucking time. I really needed that."

"Well, you indeed looked like you could use the company of a heartfelt compliment and a glass of Green Spot whiskey." She winked at him, smiling when she saw Richie' eyes widen at the whiskey's brand.

"You have that in here?" He asked, still in shock, his eyes scanning the old hotel. It certainly did not look promising.

"Yeah, but that's only because I am a whiskey fan and always make sure to keep a bottle around. But of course, it's only for _special occasions_." She said in a hushed tone like she was sharing the secrets of a cult meeting.

"I don't think you get that out a lot then."

"Well, I will in a short while. After your return." Richie eyed the old woman cautiously, trying to figure out if she was kidding or not. She shifted on her feet, waving her hand at the man with a small smirk tugged onto her pink painted lips. The live colour almost hurt the man's eyes.

"I'm not flirting with you, sweetheart. You are the age of my twins." The woman smiled at Richie, her eyes scanning his slender body. She indeed had the look of a worried mother in her eyes from the moment they met the man's gaze.

"This might be the first time I've seen you shaved and showered properly. You looked like your whole world got crushed down onto your head." Richie visibly flinched at her words. _'Right on the fucking nail. Damn, she's sharp.'_ He thought, not thinking about the fact that he was visibly depressed so it didn't take an expert to notice he was in a bad state. She chuckled; no humour in it what so ever. She just sounded genuinely worried for the man.

"I thought you could use some good quality booze." The man offered the owner a sincere smile, nodding slowly afterwards.

"Damn right, I appreciate it." He paused, looked at her like he wanted to say something as he opened his mouth, but closed it right back again, stuffing his hands into his jeans' pockets.

"Oh, don't make an old woman demand the word from you." She jokingly scolded the man, making Richie smile faintly. "Tell me what you want." He cleared his throat as he looked at her with gratefulness.

"I um... I'm leaving the town in two days. And I'm expecting someone who might come by after I leave this shithole-no offense. Well, that is of course, if that asshole ever actually shows up in here. And I could really use your help with something."

"Okay..?" She said, carrying a confused look on her face. It was clear that she was sceptical about whatever the man was planning on pulling. "But how do you know they will come?" The owner asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He has his luggage here and has nowhere else to go." Of course _if_ there was even a chance of Eddie being alive, he could just take his car and drive back to his house without actually stopping by here. "I just need to know if he's okay or not. I deeply care about that man."

"Do you love him?" She asked; a knowing tone painfully present in her voice. Her question made the man panic slightly, his palms starting to sweat from the pressure of admitting something as big as that out loud. When the owner noticed Richie's discomfort, she spoke up again, rescuing the man from freaking out any more than he already was.

"Look young man," she gave him an assuring smile. "I couldn't care less about who you want to love. I just want to know _why_ you want me to do something for him."

"Yes." Richie finally spoke up after his internal conflict, confidence seething from both his posture and voice. "I really fucking love that asshole." She made an exaggerated gagging sound, making Richie look down at the owner with a puzzled look.

"The amount of love you have for this particular man made me feel sick inside." She shuddered, a smirk forming on her lips, she nodded her head in an approving manner. "He is so damn lucky to have someone who loves him as much as you. I can see the spark in your eyes. And I can't ever decline anything in the name of love."

Richie smiled, happy that _even_ Derry had started to change. "Then I need you to do me a favour, my dear." He spoke in a broken British accent to honour the owner, making the woman chuckle.

"What do you need me to do?"

**_(2 Days Later)_ **

"Is _that_ all you're taking?" The old owner asked with great confusion written all over her face, looking down at the small black bag Richie carried on his shoulder. He shrugged, his eyes darting down at it as well.

"Yes, _this_ is all I am taking." She pursed her lips as her eyes followed the stairs to upstairs.

"But I could have sworn I saw two giant suitcases in the room." She thought for a moment before her eyes widened, a sad smile formed on her lips.

"They belong to _him_ , don't they?" Richie nodded his head with a sad look, sighing deeply.

"Do you not want to take something as a memory of him?" She said, patting the man's shoulder. "Something to remember him with and to keep you hanging in there for your lover?"

"You might be right, my dear," Richie said, looking up towards the staircase before he shook his head. "But I already have something of his." He said with a weak smile, patting his right palm against the grey hoodie he was wearing.

"And the memories we have together are more than enough for me. I just..."

He felt tears welling up inside his eyes, rubbing them underneath his glasses, the man tried not to break into loud sobs. The owner stepped towards Richie, hugging him tightly, stroking his hair as he sobbed his heart out to her chest, clutching at the front of her sweater.

"I'm sorry, I don't always... I don't normally cry."

"What do you normally do instead, Richie? Bottling your emotions surely can't be good for your mental health, honey."Richie shrugged, trying to seem he wasn't on the verge of tears, failing as a few tears strolled down his cheeks.

"I usually use shitty humour to cover it all up." He smiled, wiping the last tears off of his face. "I especially did that with Eds."

"Eds?" Richie's eyes widened as he remembered the most important thing he was supposed to do and quickly explained who his 'Eds' was and started to describe how the man looked like before he was rushing up to the room he had agreed on paying for until the very moment he gave up on Eddie.

"Eds. His name is Eddie but I like to call him Eds just because I love making him mad. He looks sexy when he's angry and it just makes me want to wind him up more." He paused for a few moments before the owner had to clear her throat loudly to get him out of his trance, shooting her an apologetic look. She dismissed it with a wave of her hand and motioned him to continue.

"He is wearing a red jacket with a blue polo shirt underneath. You can recognise him from that. He has dark brown hair and brown eyes."

He rummaged through his jacket's pocket and handed her a poorly sealed envelope with a sign saying, "Your Trashmouth. Open at your own fucking risk, Eds." She smiled; looking behind the man who was in the middle of hurriedly running up the stairs, sighing as she slipped it under the desk of reception. She wanted to see this weird-humoured but absolutely lovely man happy, and if _this_ was what would take him to finally achieve what he deserved, she would do whatever she could to help him in the process.

He finally came back from upstairs, loudly climbing down the stairs with a small but sincere smile on his lips. The owner welcomed him again and she opened her arms, letting Richie give the old woman a bone-crushing hug. She playfully slapped his shoulders, chuckling like a teenager in the man's arms.

"Okay, 'Trashmouth', let me go! I have enough broken or damaged bones already, don't want to cause several more, do you?"

Richie chuckled as he let go of her before smiling down at the woman. She had been such a great help for the last three days and he really appreciated everything she had done for him. She would come to his room in the mornings and knock on the door to see if he was awake or not, and if he was sleeping she would just invite herself in to open the windows. Her favourite activity of the day was to wake Richie up with a violent shake, almost giving him a heart attack in the process of it just the previous morning.

"Sorry, Patty," he apologised, looking down at her sheepishly. "I just wanted to express how grateful I was for all you've done for a stranger." The owner shook her head, stroking his cheek with a warm smile on her lips.

"You are a part of my family, Richard." She said, patting his shoulder. "And I don't need a stupid blood relation to tell me otherwise." Richie felt tears welling up again the sensation burning his eyes. Patty saw that and rolled her eyes in order not to cry herself, clicking her tongue at the man.

"How many times have you cried already, honey? I am truly amazed you still have tears left to spill." Richie gave her a sad smile.

"I have been keeping them all inside all my fucking life and the last few weeks weren't the best. I guess I am having a longass, slow-burning breakdown." She smiled before she went behind the reception desk to grab a long package that was wrapped up with old newspaper, turning to Richie with a mischievous smile.

"You'll get him back, I promise." She said, making Richie want to cry again. But he tried to smile as he accepted the owner's gift. "This is for you to share it with him when you get him back. Treat him right, Richie. I am sure if you love him, he deserves it."

"He has been through so much shit, Patty. You can't even imagine. He deserves everything he ever wanted but never got."

She smiled brightly since she didnt know what the man actually meant by that and patted him on the back as she pushed him towards the door gently. He gave her a questioning look and before he knew it, they were out of the front door, and were now standing in front of Richie's car.

"Our separation will be far more difficult if we stay inside that old piece of trash." Richie smiled and hugged the woman without a word one more time before he stepped into his car, waving at the woman who didn't step a foot inside the hotel until Richie was out of her sight. And once the man was gone, she sighed deeply, looking up at the building behind her, her gaze then darting up at the sky.

" _I know I used to be a faithful little girl and I do realise I don't pray as much or believe in you but if you do really exist, I need a favour. Do not let Eddie get hurt. Richie loves him so much. Let them be together again and never let them separate from each other no matter what happens. Let them love one another and heal the wounds years had carved into their souls for each other. Those boys certainly deserve better._ "

**_(A Week Later)_ **

"As always, goodnight everyone and have a wonderful fucking one! I'll be at your humble presence every Tuesday for only two more weeks. Go grab your loved ones along with some diapers because I guarantee you will piss yourself at least one time."

"Richard Trashmouth, everybody!"

Richie greeted the crowd that was applauding him and gave the microphone to the host of the show he was visiting as a mini-comeback and waved his hands as he walked off the stage, his smile dropping immediately the moment he was out of sight. His manager started to walk towards him when he saw the man wander around in the set but Richie noticed him too, whispering an "Oh, fuck," under his breath as he started to sprint towards the emergency exit. He didn't want to talk to the man and get into another argument with him all over again. Five times a week was already more than Richie could fucking handle. He just wanted to go home now.

He started to run down the stairs, and after only taking a few steps, his phone rung. He answered the call after he had already climbed down two floors to secure himself, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"Yes, Richard Tozier speaking?" He spoke formally, waiting for a response. But it came awfully later, just as Richie furrowed eyebrows, planning on looking at the name or yell at the person for wasting his time. But all his anger and confusion got forgotten as the man's ear filled with a shaky, faint whisper. A voice he knew too well was calling his name.

"Richie..?"

"Watch where you're going, you asshole!"

The man screamed at a nearby car that made a move towards the empty space between his car and the one going in front of him. His eyes were furiously checking the clock on the car's screen continuously, his hands grasping the wheel tightly to the point his knuckles were completely white. He was overly-stressed and anxious, afraid all of this was a fucked up dream and his every blink could be the end of it without him being able to see Eddie alive and well again.

**_(16 Hours Ago)_ **

"Richie..?" A shaky, familiar voice filled the man's ears that sucked every particle of anger out of his system in an instant, leaving a sweetbitter confusion behind.

"E... Eddie? _Eds_?"

"Yes Richie, it's me buddy. Where are you?"

Richie had already started to climb down the stairs of the building he had just performed at again, not caring that he had left his jacket inside, starting to run towards his car. He unlocked the red vehicle as quick as possible, climbing inside as he pressed the phone against his ear with his shoulder, turning the ignition on with trembling hands.

"Do _not_ move an inch from where you are, Eds. I'll be there in twenty hours." And without waiting for his friend's answer, he hung up, quickly driving off.

**(Derry, Maine)**

He parked his car at the nearly empty car park in front of the hotel and got out of it before he slammed the door close, hurrying to the door. He pushed them open with force, making them swing open and hit the old hotel walls.

"What the fuck?" He heard someone curse loudly as he stomped inside, his eyes starting to scan the small lobby. He froze when his eyes finally landed on one particular man, letting go of the breath he didn't know he was holding in.

Eddie jumped up from the armchair he had been sitting down on to that located next to the stairs, dropping the book in his hands in the process. The man's legs wobbled under his weight for a moment as his eyes widened with surprise and happiness. He held his arms out and Richie ran into his arms without a second thought, nearly sending him falling down flat on his back. They were both laughing, stroking each other's backs, giving one another occasional squeezes as their tears streamed down silently. Both of them were absolutely relieved to finally see each other again.

"Eddie? Are you _really_ here, man?" Richie wanted to assure himself that he wasn't hallucinating because of his usual anxiety before his shows. Eddie pulled back slightly and smiled up at him, nodding violently as his tears blurred his vision, but yet he was sure Richie was smiling at him.

"Yes, Rich. I am here-"

"Eddie, what was that loud banging? Did the cupboard's drawer give up agai-Oh my god, _Richie_?" Patty walked in with a stressed frown until she saw the person Eddie was hugging by the stairs. Richie gave her a guilty, warm smile as she quickly walked towards the men, hugging them both tightly when she had arrived.

"Oh, Richie..." Patty cried out, hugging him even tighter, getting really close to almost raising him off his feet for a second. Richie laughed out loud, feeling genuinely happy for the first time in a week. He hugged the woman back as hard as she did, slightly swinging them left to right on their feet.

"I missed you too, Patty." He said with a sincere voice as they pulled away, looking down at her face with a warm smile.

"You look less destroyed than I saw you the last time. You were a total wreck, Richard." She gave him a friendly pat on his upper arm. "That's good that you finally decided to take care of yourself, boy."

"Well, had to start off from somewhere..." He muttered as he scratched the back of his neck nervously, his sheepish gaze soon meeting with Eddie's concerned and confused one. He raised his eyebrows at Richie and he did _not_ look pleased at all with what he had heard. With a deep frown, he turned to look back at Patty.

"What do you mean by that, Pat?" He asked, making the woman turn to him.

"Oh, you should've seen this man the first time he came into the hotel. He refused to come out of his room and I don't think he ate properly nor showered regularly for the first couple of days-"

"Patty, that's more than enough, I'm okay n-"

"Beep beep Richie." Eddie said sternly, his frown deepening on his face as he looked at Patty, nodding as he motioned to get her to continue. "Please do continue, Pat."

"You would be stupid as well as blind if you failed to see that he was grieving over someone. I wanted to help him as best as I possibly could but no matter I did, he always seemed distant and out of focus. He refused to come out of his room unless it was absolutely necessary and I could hear him cry at night whenever I passed by his door." She paused for a moment to wait for Eddie to process everything she had said, continuing afterwards.

"He was grieving over _you_ , Eddie." She gave him a small smile, hugging him tightly. "Thank you for cheering him up. He loves you so much, don't you dare hurting him like this ever again."

Eddie nodded as they pulled away, his loving gaze on Richie. The old lady was right; the man _had_ lost a few pounds. His cheekbones were more visible now because of how sunken his cheeks looked and his skin was paler definitely than before.

He guided him towards the bar and made him sit down on the bar tools as he walked to the back, giving some crackers to Richie, refusing to talk to the man until he finished his entire plate.

"You've been here for five days and didn't call me? Eds, are you fucking stupid? Do you have any idea how miserable I was? I broke down every fucking night because I thought _you died for real!_ I broke down because I thought I would never see your fucking face again!"

"Richie, just listen," The man said, placing his hands on Richie's slightly trembling thighs. "I needed time to recover from the emotional trauma. And according to Patty here*Eddie pointed at the old woman that was seated by the reception desk* I was out cold for three days straight after my arrival here."

"That's true," she spoke up after a whole minute of pure silence in the hotel, a glint of worry in her eyes as she watched the two men have a stare contest.

"When he came here he was completely freezing and had a big hole with blood stains on his shirt. But when I searched for any kinds of wounds, there were none. I just saw a big cut scar below his chest. So, I'm not sure how that blood got there."

Richie furrowed his eyebrows as he swallowed thickly and grabbed Eddie's hand before standing up. "We will go upstairs for a bit, Patty. I have some things I would like to talk with Edward about."

The man swallowed thickly after Richie's serious tone and the usage of his full name, already not liking where their conversation was going to be heading. But he forced himself to smile despite his anxiety and gave the taller man's hand a frim squeeze before starting to lead the way up the stairs. They silently entered Eddie's room, both of them stopped and stood in the middle of it awkwardly before Eddie heard Richie swear under his breath before pulling the man close for a tight, loving embrace.

He immediately melted into Richie's touch and buried his face into the crook of the man's neck while Richie buried his nose into Eddie's neatly combed hair, inhaling his scent. Even the smell of the man's expensive shampoo(Eddie absolutely refused to use anything the hotel offered besides the water) couldn't mask his natural scent and Richie was far more pleased with it than anything else. But after a long while of comfortable silence between the men, Richie broke it with a simple word.

He pulled away a just few centimetres from Eddie as his eyes scanned the man's face. After finding nothing, his hands found his collar, and he squeezed hard until his knuckles turned white. Eddie was preparing himself for harsh insults and yelling but that never came.

"How?"

That one word was all Richie could say before he broke into loud sobs, squeezing the man's collar even tighter like he wanted an insurance he was actually there in his arms, burying his face against Eddie's chest. That made Eddie realise that all Richie wanted was to be _held_ , to be _secure_. So, the man didn't resist his friend's hug-he would never even dream of it anyway-, and tightened his own grip on Richie's waist as an answer, his hands climbing up to hug him better, starting to rub soothingly around his back.

"I... I don't know how or why I'm here but I'm actually _real_ Richie." He whispered, feeling the taller man tighten his grip on himself even more. It hurt a little at that point but he knew his friend needed closure to believe Eddie was actually there, right beside him; that his arms were really surrounding Richie at the moment.

"I am here and I am alive."

Richie pulled away from their tight hugging session, starting to examine his features like this was the last time Richie would ever see Eddie. Seeing that sight broke Eddie's heart to the point his eyes almost welled up.

"Punch me." Eddie furrowed his eyebrows with confusion.

"Excuse me?"

Richie scoffed, shaking his head as he placed his hands on either side of Eddie's cheeks, his thumb caressing the scar on his left cheek that was now covered with a brand new bandage. Eddie felt his breath hitch by the overwhelming amount of different emotions Richie's eyes held, feeling captivated and completely mesmerized by his beauty.

"I said punch me, you asshole, I want to know whether this is actually real or a dream. If it hurts I'll be convinced a little more that you are... _Here_ and that I can actually touch you. If I wake up, I'll wake up from my favourite Spaghetti Man's punch which would also accomplish a wet-dream of mine." He said, winking at Eddie.

The man shook his head at his terrible flirting skills, leaning into him a little. He heard Richie's breath hitch in his throat, barely holding back the urge to smirk, he looked into the eyes he had never realised he had been wanted to be the main attention they would be focused on all the time ever since they were kids. He leaned in even more, now making their sharp breaths crash against one another's faces.

Richie awkwardly cleared his throat, trying his damn best to find the strength in him to look away from Eddie's intense stare, trying to pull away from the man when he couldn't bring himself to do so. But even though he actually tried to put distance between their bodies, Eddie's arms that were tightly wrapped around his waist prevented the man from escaping from his grip.

"Eds, I don't think you should be this close to me-"

"Beep beep, Rich." He whispered; his eyes fixated on the man's lips now. Richie swallowed thickly, mentally fighting with himself not to lower his gaze to his friend's lips that were painfully too close to him. It felt like a cruel torture but it was still heavenly for Richie to be able to be this close to his love.

"Eddie, I am seri-"

His words were cut off by the half-hearted punch Eddie threw to his stomach(and yet it actually hurt), and his eyes widened as he felt a warm, soft pressure on his lips even before he could process what just happened. Then it all clicked, Eddie had given him what he wanted. He had punched him and was now kissing him for some reason. And he was annoyingly good at it.

After a while of Eddie kissing Richie the man scoffed and pulled back, bumping his forehead against the taller man's with a slight glare. Richie couldn't form any words to ask what was wrong; he felt too weak and anxious under his intense stare, his knees threatening the man to just give in at any given second.

"Are you going to kiss me back or should I just assume your love letter was just a joke you decided to pull as one last 'fuck you' just in case I came back from the dead?"

"You read it?" Eddie smiled, shaking his head fondly at Richie, their foreheads still pressed together.

" _Yes_ , you dickhead. And I'm a moron for not noticing both of us' feelings for thirty fucking years."

"What do you mean?" Richie asked; his voice trembling with hope as Eddie smirked at his dumbfounded state, enjoying it as much as he could. He closed the gap between their lips once again before he whispered: " _This_ , you absolute fucking idiot."

This time Richie could actually process Eddie's second kiss, the man started to kiss back as best as he could, feeling his heart flutter at the new yet deliciously familiar feeling of Eddie's lips. For thirty fucking years, this was just a dream but now the love of his life was right before him and as an addition to that shocking fact, Eddie Kaspbrak was _kissing_ him at the moment. Richie felt like he could cry again. And of course, he masked that with another joke.

"Wow Eds, didn't know you got your wonderful kissing skills from your mum. I can even dare to go as far as saying that you're a better kisser than my dearest Sonia. I hope she won't get mad at me for cheating on her." Eddie just smiled at his classic joke that once again involved his deceased mother, a sensitive topic for him, and yet he just shook his head fondly.

"Richie-"

"Beep beep? Okay, I'll shut up." The man sounded kind of hurt, making Eddie's heart ache for him. He looked like a kicked puppy.

" _No_ , Richie, I _don't_ want you to shut up." Eddie smiled; pecking Richie's swollen lips because of their previous kiss. "I love you baby."

Until the nickname, Richie was sure he actually had Eddie before him. But after that, he had his doubts. Eddie had never called him any nicknames before other than Trashmouth and Rich before-and a few occasional insults that Richie insisted were pet names given to him by Eddie-. He narrowed his eyes sceptically, pulling away as he harshly pushed the man away from him, taking long steps backwards and towards the bed as he glared at him.

" _Fuck you_ , dude! You're fucking It, aren't you?" He shook his head as he shouted at Eddie hysterically. "Isn't it enough that you already haunt my dreams, you sad excuse of a demon? I'm already breaking apart, _just what more could you possibly want from me?_ "

Eddie just stared at him, Richie staring back. He was absolutely on edge, waiting for any kinds of movements from him. Waiting for any faltering at the expression he had on, any yellow glow in his eyes; for anything bad to actually happen. But there were no movements or any changes. It was just Eddie looking right at him with a worried and as hurt look on his face. Richie was finally starting to believe that the man before him was the _real_ Eddie; the man he had fallen in love years ago. It wasn't a stupid mystical demonic creature from fuck knows where. Because the sorrow he saw in the man's eyes were... _It was just completely real_. And the real feelings were something a demonic clown would never ever be able to mimic

Eddie sighed, still carrying a sorrowful face and slowly stepped closer to Richie, smiling with an assuring manner at him as he gently raised his hands, obvious enough for Richie to know he wasn't trying to pull any funny business. The man let him get close without trying to escape or shouting at him; he just watched him slowly approach. And when Eddie was finally standing right before him, Richie was fully convinced that the man stood before him was actually _his Eds_.

"I'm so sorry, Rich," he spoke softly as a whisper, almost afraid the man would run away if he talked too loudly. "I should have probably said it sooner. But I really tried confessing before-"

He paused as Richie's eyes dropped down to Eddie's stomach. He nodded at the man, silently watching as Eddie slowly cupped his cheeks, looking right into his eyes. They held so much affection and pure love, and even a glimpse of lust inside. His stare made Richie feel like he was slowly suffocating under the intensity of them, but in the best fucking way possible.

And when he slowly started to lean in without breaking eye-contact with Richie, the man felt his chest tighten immediately. Then Eddie stopped right before his face, his eyes studying his face intently. Feeling the warmth of the man's lips without actually being able to touch them almost made Richie whimper, the man furrowed his eyebrows slightly.

"I love you Richard Tozier," Eddie said, his hungry eyes watching Richie's lips before looking back up at his eyes. "And I am _not_ a fucking clown." And with that, he crashed their lips with so much force that it sent Richie wobbling on his feet and Eddie had to hold him still in place to prevent him from crashing down to the floor.

He pulled away after a while of kissing, his hands on either side of Richie's neck as he did, looking right into his eyes. " _I love you._ I love you so fucking much. And I don't have any idea how I didn't realise it sooner, it was just _so obvious_ that I liked you back then." He pecked the man's lips quickly before pulling away from Richie completely, taking a small step away from him.

"But now, I fucking _love_ you."

"But your wife-" Eddie rolled his eyes before interrupting Richie.

" _To hell with my fucking wife_. I didn't love Myra even for a second; I just pathetically tried to trick myself into being straight and just went along with everything. But in reality, she just felt like the younger version of my mom. You were completely right about that comment." He said all the while looking right at Richie's lips, licking his own lips before finally bothering with making eye-contact with the man.

Richie's eyes widened when their gazes suddenly found each other, not knowing how to act, he swallowed thickly. He nervously looked around for a bit before, plastering a huge smile on his face and opened his mouth until Eddie stopped him by putting a hand over his mouth, without moving an inch from where he was standing.

"Don't you dare pulling an accent on me Richie! I want you to be serious for one fucking moment. Can you do that for me?" Richie blinked a few times, nodding with a dazed look on his face afterwards.

"Good." He took a deep breath before he nervously grabbed Eddie's hands, squeezing them gently.

"Eds, you know I suck at-" He was cut off by Eddie before he could even fully start his speech.

"Richie, I'm not asking you to make a wedding vow yet, I just-" Richie's eyes widened as he stopped the man from continuing his words.

"Whoa, whoa. Stop! Rewind, there a lil', Eds. What do you mean _'yet_ '? Are you telling me that you _actually_ want a future with _me_?" Eddie sighed so deeply that it almost sounded like an irritated groan, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he shook his head.

"You're just so fucking clueless that I have to spell the words out for you, isn't that right? Richard Tozier I, Edward Kaspbrak, am deeply in love with your stupid accents, horrible your mom jokes and dorky outfits. And we are literally _forty_ dude, of course I'll want a stabilized future with the man I love at such an old age." Richie eyes scanned Eddie's body up and down before smirking and winking.

"I don't know what you think of yourself Eddie Spaghetti but you're lookin' just fine for a forty years old snack. I could even-"

" _Richie_." Eddie said sternly, looking into the taller man's eyes. He cleared his throat, nodding as he pursed his lips together with a slight nod of his head.

"Right, yeah," He coughed awkwardly. "I was just about to start being serious with you." He scratched the back of his neck nervously, clearing his throat as Eddie's expectant eyes watched him start to speak.

"Eddie, my love-"

"Did you just-" Richie completely ignored Eddie's amusement-filled question and shook his head to silence the man.

"We have known each other since we were kids and I think I have been in love with your tiny ass since I was eleven. The way 'It' tortured me was just a late-wake-up-call for me and I started to slowly warm up to my sexuality. And when shitty Derry's shitty people decided to hit me for it, embarrassing me in front of a bunch of people just because I wanted to play a stupid video game, I hit twice as hard and showed them that I wasn't afraid anymore; that I wasn't going to be silenced with fear. So, I carved our initials onto the Kissing Bridge to let everyone know that I wasn't going to take getting beat up without defending my feelings. _I was fucking in love with you_ and wanted nothing but the whole world to know about it."

"Why didn't you tell me then?"

"Would you have accepted my feelings when we were younger, Eds? Would you be able to stand up for yourself? For us?" Richie shook his head, answering his own questions. "I knew you wouldn't be able to do that. Because I knew you'd be as scared as I was. I was scared shitless of losing you, Eddie. Losing you because of my feelings." He whispered, gently massaging the backs of Eddie's hands.

"Remember when we were talking about our first encounters with Pennywise and what we saw? What our fears were?" Eddie nodded, looking up at him with curiosity. "I lied about mine, Eds."

"What was it then?" Eddie whispered; letting his eyelids fall shut as Richie pushed their foreheads together.

"My greatest fear _was_ and still _is_ losing you. That's exactly why I was completely devastated when I saw, well thought(?) I guess in this case, that you died right fucking in front of me. And I'm sorry but I still can't believe you are standing before me, confessing your love to a Trashmouth."

"What can I say? I only love one certain Trashmouth and I don't regret falling in love with you."

"Neither do I, Spaghetti Man." Eddie wrinkled his nose with disgust at the nickname.

"Now I do." Richie smiled.

"Touché."

Eddie chuckled before pulling him in for another hug, feeling the taller man's cheek resting on top of his head. They stood there, not moving, not talking; just enjoying each other's presence and warmth once again. Richie took a deep breath, informing Eddie that he was going to talk about another thing 'seriously'. And even though the man liked seeing this side of Richie, it still didn't feel fully right. He loved seeing Richie the best when he was his goofy self but he knew they couldn't mess around and push all their problems away like they didn't exist at all forever. But, _damn_ , did he really want to just do that.

"I am so scared, Eds." He started, taking another deep breath. "I am fucking terrified of waking up any time now and realise that all this had been a cruel game of my mind. I am so scared of waking up and... Deciding on never waking up to a morning of a world where you don't exist anymore. I am scared of not finding my will to live if I wake up now."

"How can I prove that I am as real as you and won't disappear on you like a cotton candy in water? _How can I make you believe I am real, Richie_?" Eddie asked, sorrow seething from his voice, he pulled away just to cup Richie's face and looked right into his eyes.

"Tell me everything you have been through in the past week." Richie answered, his eyebrows slightly furrowed. "Tell me everything Eds. _Make me_ _believe_ you are actually alive."

The man nodded before grabbing Richie's hands instead of his face and guided him towards the bed. He made him sit down on it and then gently sat down beside him, not letting go of his hands once in the process. The two shared a look, and Eddie smiled before pressing his lips against Richie's gently, humming against them with slight joy.

* * *

**(Neibolt House: Losers Killing Pennywise)**

The man finally found his way out of his past's lake of regrets and sorrow, breathing heavily as he literally crawled out of the pit and threw himself out of the water, trying to catch his breath as he coughed violently against the rocks. Mike saw his friend enter the open area that surrounded the altar, knowing damn well that if Pennywise saw Bill, the man wouldn't last too long and he sure didn't look like he would be getting up soon. Mike knew he _had_ to do something to save his friend.

He slowly got out from behind the spikes of the altar that he was using as a shield to hide from It, managing to take only a few steps until the monster was now standing right before him.

"Miss me?" It asked, making Mike take a step back with surprise mixed with slight fright. But the man knew if he didn't fear It, Pennywise wouldn't be able to hurt him. Besides, he was aware that he kind of didn't actually _have_ the luxury to be afraid; he _had_ to save his friend. So he stood his ground, his fingers rolling into tight, slightly shaking fists on his either side.

"I know what you are." He took a sharp breath, glaring up at the clown's face. "That's why I'm not afraid."

Pennywise didn't say anything, It only gave Mike a malicious smirk before he wrapped the man up with one of his limbs tightly, creating a sharp spike from the tip of it, holding it close to the man's throat as he let out his signature, mildly irritating laugh. Bill saw Mike get caught by It as he started to pull himself together a bit, the man starting to crawl backwards, full of fear for his friend's life and safety.

"And _I_ know what you are," Pennywise spoke up as he tightened his grip on Mike, making the man gasp aloud, an insane look spreading all across his face as he got close to Mike's, his glowing yellow eyes never breaking their uncomfortable eye-contact. "A mad man."

Pennywise opened his mouth the moment It was finished, his grip getting even tighter, revealing his multiple sets of sharp teeth surrounding the inner walls of his throat. He leaned in more, getting dangerously closer to Mike until a rock hit him on the side of his face. It let out a yelp of confusion as Mike jerked his head to see who saved his life, seeing Richie at the entrance of the cave that he had been in with Eddie just a moment ago.

"Hey fuck face!"

Pennywise turned towards him with a glare as he threw the man he had captured with his limb aside like Mike was just a weightless rag doll he didn't need anymore. Richie crouched down and grabbed another rock before he turned back to the spider/clown abomination.

"Let's play truth or dare! Here's a truth: you're sloppy bitch!" It growled; his attention getting fixated on Richie completely.

"Yeah, that's right! Let's dance! Yippee-ki-aye motherfu-"

The rock in the man's hand fell down as his knees benti in and towards one another, his mouth gaping open as his eyes rolled to the back of his head, the orange light wrapping the man up like a cocoon of absolute nightmares and terror. _Richie had gotten caught by the deadlights._

The man hurried behind his friend, not wanting to spend another second inside the dark, hellish cave he had been in with Richie that he was now all alone, stopping in his tracks the moment he took a step out, letting out a horrified gasp at the scene before him.

Richie was floating in mid-air, his limbs completely limp under the orange beams of the deadlights that had captivated the man. The back of It's head was open, the three blue orbs slowly sinking down towards the man from above, rubbing and bumping against one another in the process continuously, creating faint buzzing sounds along with electrical waves around them. Eddie squeezed his eyes shut tightly to escape from being captured by them as well, his face wrinkling with a mix of shock, terror and disbelief.

A few drops of blood escaped the man's nose and floated to the opposite direction of where it was supposed to go.

Eddie was losing time. The deadlights were getting dangerously close to Richie and the man knew he had to look past his fears and save his friend for real now. He knew this time he had no luxuries to freeze on his ground like he did with Spider-Stan; he _had_ to do something to save his favourite person on Earth.

"This; kills monsters." The man said out loud, looking at the piece of metal fencing that belonged to the Neibolt house. It was sharp on the tip and he knew he could use it as a spear. He grasped the rusty metal object tightly in his fist.

"If you believe it does. If you believe it does. If you believe it does." He chanted Beverly's words like he was trying to believe his words as he said them, glaring up at the monster captivated Richie.

" _If you believe it does_!" He shouted thw words between gritted teeth one last time, his angered eyes never leaving his target even once.

He took his head-light off and walked towards to the now-distracted clown, starting to run to the edge as he yelled: "Beep beep, motherfucker!"

He threw the spear towards the clown and it pierced through his unnaturally wide open mouth, breaking the cycle of the dead lights and sparing Richie. The man that once floated in mid-air fell down to the ground with a heart breaking thud the moment the orbs disappeared. Golden liquid that came from his mouth floated up to the air as It wobbled on his feet, starting to slowly choke on the metal fence that was stuck in his throat. Finally he took a few steps backwards, just to fall down and pierced himself in the stomach with one of the spikes of the altar. The golden liquid started to turn into blood after it continued to exit his mouth, muffled chocking sounds of the clown echoing around the area.

Eddie watched the whole thing with wide eyes in disbelief, his jaw falling open as Pennywise's face turned to his original clown state. "Holy shit."

_**(16 Minutes Ago)** _

Finally, the time they had been waiting for had come. First part of their ritual was done and only remained the significantly harder part. The Losers' hands were linked together tightly, forming a human cycle in the altar, looking down at the wooden artefact that had been lighting the area on the ground around it up until just a few seconds ago.

"What the..."

Richie was the first one to speak up, feeling overly confused by how the fire had died down so quickly. The man's response didn't arrive too late, as came the faint electrical buzzing sounds that were accompanied by a strong breeze made them all turn their heads up, and they saw the dirt ceiling start to open up to reveal three orange orbs of light slowly sinking down from there and towards them.

"The fuck is that?" Bill asked with a hushed tone, looking up at the orbs with disbelief to inspect them.

"Don't look at them!" Mike warned his friends in a semi-panicked state, looking around at his friends to see if they would listen to him.

"Are those the deadlights?"

"Don't look at them!" Instead of answering Richie's question, Mike parroted his warning, making Eddie flinch and look back at his friends before mumbling an "Okay..." with a small voice.

"Turn light into dark." He started to chant the words all the Losers had to say for their ritual to work. "Say it!"

"Say what?" Eddie asked only to get yelled by Mike again. "Say it!"

Flinching again, Eddie hesitantly started to chant Mike's words, Beverly joining in a second later. And soon, all the others were joined in as well, all six of them chanting the words like a prayer. And it kind of was, that was their last resort. Their last chance of survival.

"Turn light into dark! Turn light into dark!" The Losers kept chanting as Mike resumed the ritual with words in a language that the others couldn't understand.

"Turn light into dark." Ben said with a slightly shaking voice as Bill chanted it after him. "Turn light into dark!"

The deadlights were progressing closer to the ground level now, sinking down even further every time the Losers chanted the words, getting dangerously close to them.

"Turn light into dark! Mike, what's happening, man?" Richie asked; his eyes still squeezed shut tightly.

"Keep chanting!" Mike ignored Richie's question again as he didn't quite know the answer himself. His eyes were closed as well as everyone's.

"Turn light into dark!" Beverly shouted the words, a pained expression on her face. "Turn light into dark!" Ben did the same as Beverly, screaming the words.

The deadlights were right between the Losers now, making their way into the artefact that stood in the middle. Mike kept reminding his friends to keep chanting words as the others obeyed, screaming the words as they kept their eyes closed tightly, afraid of ruining the ritual.

At last, still chanting the ritual's words, Mike crouched down, grabbing the artefact's lid, closing it after the lights were securely inside. But instead of seeing the whitish orange illumination inside it, there was a flash of something blood red inside right before Mike closed the lid.

"Turn light into dark! Is it working? Did we do it?" Eddie said even after the others had stopped chanting the words. He slowly opened his eyes and looked down at the artefact that Mike held the lid closed to.

As a response, a bright red balloon started to form from inside the artefact, forcing the lid Mike held closed upwards, trying to get out of the small box it had been trapped into. Beverly started to breathe heavily, looking down at the balloon under the wooden lid.

"Oh god. Is this a part of it?" Her voice hitched in fear, cracking at the end of her question.

"Mike, is this supposed to be happening?" Richie backed her question, his wide eyes never leaving the red balloon slowly making its way out of the artefact until they darted upwards at the end of his sentence.

"What? No, no, no, no-" Eddie started to panic, his rambling got cut off by Mike.

"Keep chanting!" He said with a distressed tone. "What?" Eddie was horrified, his wide eyes on the balloon that was getting out of control. Bill backed Mike by telling them to keep chanting the words again.

"Turn light into dark." They started to chant the words again. "Come on, turn light into dark!" Bill shouted at his friends to encourage them before he stepped towards Mike's side, his terrified gaze completely fixated on the balloon.

"Turn light into dark! Turn light into dark!" They tried to make the blood red balloon sink back into the artefact hopelessly, Beverly murmuring something in terror as Richie took a few steps back because he had realised that they didn't quite win this battle.

And in the end, the balloon won the strength fight just as Richie had expected. No matter how hard the man tried to hold it in, no matter how many times the Losers chanted the words, it quickly overpowered his pushing as well as their attempts, making him and the other Losers fall backwards and immediately started to increase its volume.

"Hey! _Hey!_ " Richie furrowed his eyebrows with horror, trying to get away from the balloon as best as possible without leaving the centre of the spikes. But it just kept getting bigger and bigger in a matter of seconds, leaving the Losers no choice but to leave the altar.

"Shit!" Ben cursed as he held onto the sides of two spikes, hanging his body backwards from them as his feet were still at the bottom of the altar's spikes, but in the end, he let go of them and jumped down when he realised the balloon wasn't going to back away.

As the Losers ran away from it; the balloon kept getting bigger and bigger, even covering the tips of some of the spikes in the process, huge bumps of red plastic forming in-between the shaft of them. But it couldn't resist the sharpness of them anymore and it popping loudly, sending the Losers flying down with the pressure of the air that was once trapped inside the balloon.

An irritating ringing sound filled each of the Losers' ears as they tried to find their balance, slowly trying their best to get back to their feet.

"Bev? Bev! Bev!" Ben called as he run to her to check if she was okay.

"Richie!" Bill called for Richie as the man put his arm over his shoulders, his flashlight illuminating his grimace.

"Are you okay?"

"I can't hear anything." Bill answered him as Richie announced the man was fine, patting his upper arm reassuringly afterwards.

"You alright?" Eddie asked Richie and the others as he slowly walked towards them.

"Yeah-No, no, no, no." Richie really wasn't sure. Then Eddie noticed that one particular Loser wasn't with them.

"Wait! Where's Mike?" After the panicked question from the man, Ben started to call for him too, the others joining in on calling him soon after Ben.

"Mike? Mike?"

"Mike!"

"I'm here!" The man called back as he ran towards them with one of his hands in the air, waving it to get their attention. When he arrived, he put his palms against his knees, breathing heavily.

"Did we do it? Did we do it yet? Did we do it?" Eddie asked, already sick of being down there, his slight fear showing on his face, his eyes scanning around his friends.

"Yeah, we-we put the tokens... In-In the thing. That's good right?" Richie said after Eddie, aiming his question at Mike.

"We did it, right?" Eddie asked again after Richie, this time his voice carrying a small glimpse of hope from voicing the same concerns with the man.

As Eddie and Richie kept asking if the ritual was over yet, Beverly was trying to fix her flashlight, pointing it in front of her after she hit the tool with her hand and got it to work. And when the light came back as strong as before, the Losers all gasped in fear with the face they saw in-between the spikes staring right back at them with insane, glowing golden eyes and a weird smile. Ben and Eddie screamed with fear as they took a few steps backwards, Richie cursing out loud in pure terror.

" _Oh, did it work, Mikey_? Did it work?" Pennywise mimicked, mocking the two men with his poor imitations of them, letting out a loud, cursed laughter afterwards. It wheezed as he inhaled before speaking up again.

"Tell them why your silly little ritual didn't work. That it's all just a..." It paused, sinking down towards where Eddie was standing, looking at him through the gaps in the shaft of the spikes.

"What's the word, Eds?" It looked down to pretend like he was thinking for a moment before looking back at him again with an unsettling smile. "Gazebo?"

Eddie's face wrinkled with confusion, his flashlight still illuminating the clown's face. "Mike, what's he talking about?"

"M-M-Muh-Mikey?" Bill stuttered his friend's name as he got up from where he had fallen onto. Mike didn't say anything, he just kept looking at Pennywise with horror.

"Oh, Mikey you never showed them the forth side, _did you_?" Pennywise let out Its ugly laughter again, starting to slowly stand up inside the circle, holding the spike close to Its face as It looked down at the Losers again, starting to speak.

"Didn't want them to know what _actually_ happened to the poor Shokopiwah-nom-nom-nom-nom?" It said the tribal name like he had the best dinner of his life a second ago.

"Fuck, Mikey. You lied to us again?" Bill shouted at the man, looking back up at Pennywise.

"No-But... They didn't... They didn't-they didn't-they believe... They didn't believe they could kill him! That's why it didn't work back then!" He stuttered under the pressure of trying to convince his friends as a hopeless last resort.

"Are you fucking kidding me, Mike?" Richie shouted at him, his wide eyes darting back and forth between his friend and Pennywise.

"We hurt him..." He whispered hopelessly, a regretful frown on his face.

"Fuck!" Richie shouted again, his wide eyes looking back at It.

"Fuck you, Mikey!" Bill shouted after Richie, a glare plastered onto his face.

"I... I needed something..." The man spoke up again, Eddie snapping his neck towards him, a quiet huff of annoyance escaping his lips. "Anything... Anything for us-for us to remember. Anything for us to _believe_!"

"Fuck!"

"God damn it!"

Bill and Richie shouted out loud at the same time, looking at Mike with disappointment and betrayal for a moment before turning back to Pennywise.

Then black smoke started to come out of the artefact which seemed completely unaffected by the quite forceful popping of the balloon, then the three blue orbs started to float up back to where they had come from. They bumped into one another once they were out, making a loud buzzing noise, creating another cloud of black smoke in the air.

"The deadlights!" Beverly informed the Losers, shutting her eyes. "Don't look at them!"

Eddie groaned as he covered his eyes with his arm, clenching his teeth with mixed feelings the man was going through at the moment. Richie looked around him with horror in his eyes, rapidly blinking them. Finding that distraction as a great opportunity, Pennywise walked towards a bigger gap between the spikes, starting to slowly walk out of the altar.

"For twenty seven years I dreamt of you..." It spoke up, finally walking out of the circle of the altar, revealing the lower half of his body that belonged to a spider. Laughing shortly, he continued. "I craved you." It wobbled his upper body left to right, arms swinging like they had no joints attached to Its shoulders.

"Oh, I missed you!" Pennywise said his last words with a frown on his face of a toddler, an enthusiasm in his voice the Losers didn't want to hear from him, a short laughter session following.

"Mike! Move back!" Ben said as he stepped backwards with Beverly close to his chest, Eddie bumping into Mike as he moved away from Pennywise.

"Waiting for _this very moment._ "

It informed, slightly moving his face close to the frozen man before him. He looked like he didn't hear his friends' desperate calls for him to move back or even look at them for once, his teary eyes moving with Pennywise who was slowly getting closer to him.

"Mikey! Gotta move Mikey!" Bill shouted at him, his worried gaze darting between the back of Mike's head and the monster. But he refused to move.

"I'm sorry guys.(Ben: Mike, come on man!/Richie: Mike, get out of there!) I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He apologised over and over again, still not moving an inch.

"Time to float." Pennywise said as his voice got even more wheezier with every word he said and raised his right hand above his head in the process, his face wrinkling up with hatred as his hand changed into a sharp tipped spider leg. When the Losers saw that, they all let out horrified gasps and quiet, short cries of terror, Bill's terrified gaze darting towards his friend that seemed to be in a trance right before It.

"Oh shit!" He cursed as he noticed Pennywise aiming his arm to impale Mike as he still kept apologising over and over again. But before his sharp limb could reach the man, Bill tackled the man to the ground from his side, preventing him from meeting his horrible end sooner than necessary.

"Come on, Mike, get up! Get him up!"

Bill and Ben helped the man up, almost having to drag him away from Pennywise that had successfully pulled Its limb out of the ground, starting to chase the Losers shortly after. Richie looked back to see how close he was, cursing out loud as he turned back, concentrating on just running and not to trip on anything.

"Run! Come on!"

The Losers kept on running as Pennywise swung his spikey-limb around, breaking a few tips off of some spikes of the altar; the Losers ducked down and covered their heads from the flying rocks as they tried to keep their pace going. It hit the ground, separating them into groups for a second before they got back again, Bill kept reminding them to keep running.

When Pennywise was far away from him, Mike slid under a series of spikes right before him, hiding himself from Its gaze. Beverly and Ben ran towards a cave opening as Richie and Eddie went towards another one, leaving Bill alone to run away from It. He found an opening that had water in it and threw himself inside to escape from him. Pennywise opened his mouth to try to catch the man mid-air, missed and bit the rocks holding the water in the pit instead.

It gave up on chasing the man that was lost inside the water now, looking up and gazing directly at the opening of the cave Eddie and Richie were standing by.

"Oh, shit!" Eddie cursed from behind Richie as the other man let out a short scream of terror, narrowing his eyes afterwards like he wasn't screaming for his life just a moment ago.

"Can he see us?"

His response was Pennywise fully turning to face the men; threateningly lowering his head. That gesture made both of them scream in terror, cursing out loud and running into the cave to escape from It.

"Oh shit!" Richie cursed as he ran before Eddie, his flashlight bobbling up and down violently.

"Damn it, run! Run, run, run!"

They both cursed out loud, letting out cries of terror as they looked back and saw Pennywise's arm extent to reach them, turning back and resuming their sprint. And at the end of the cave; waited their three-door-hell.

"Shit. You've gotta be fucking kidding me." Richie said in a whisper as they looked back to where they came from, seeing how the arm couldn't actually reach them, turning back to examine the writings on the doors.

Richie pointed his flashlight towards the first door for them to read. "Very Scary". Then he pointed at the other door, their heads moving in synch with the light. "Scary". Then he finally pointed at the last one. "Not Scary At All".

They got stunned, thinking about which door to was the best of the equally bad options to enter. The arm that was behind them tried to reach the men again, making them flinch.

"God, damn it!" Richie exclaimed, the men considering the doors in silence, not wanting to be killed.

"Um, alright. 'Not Scary At All', alright?" Eddie finally spoke up, sounding unsure of himself, raising his eyebrows and nodding slightly after finishing his sentence, taking a step towards that door only to be stopped by Richie's hand pulling him back to his side.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no! They're-"

"Wait, why?" Eddie protested as Richie pulled the man even closer to himself, his hand grasping his forearm tightly. That made Eddie look up at the man's tightly closed eyes with great concern.

"They're... They're uh... They're flipped! He's fucking with us!" He rambled, his hand now grasping Eddie's lower arm even more firmly as they turned back to check on Pennywise's arm behind them in synch.

"Are you sure?" Eddie asked, sounding extremely panicked.

"Trust me!"

"Positive?"

"Yes!"

"Okay."

The man reassured his friend and let Eddie go before walking towards the "Very Scary" door. He slowly opened it as Eddie walked closer and stood a few steps behind him, looking at the opening door over Richie's shoulder. At first nothing happened, the door revealing a dark and disturbingly silent closet. It just _had_ to be a closet, didn't it?

"Where's my shoe?"

The shaky but angry sounding whisper came from inside a few moments later made Richie knit his eyebrows together with concern, his slightly parted lips closed for a second before they parted again, a quiet gasp finding its way out of his mouth. He took a deep breath before he reached for the light switch that hung down from who knows where, turning the light on.

Again, it was nothing at first, just a few shirts hung inside, and various objects littering the wooden floor. But the loud clicks against the bottom of the closet made Eddie flinch slightly, pulling his face away a few centimetres as Richie stayed still, his head moving slightly to try to see whatever was making that noise before something actually happened.

The disturbing chuckle of a young girl filled their ears before the lower half of Betty Ripsom came into their point of view, skipping towards the men. Richie screamed with terror before slamming the door close as they stepped backwards.

"What was that? You said I could trust you!"

Eddie screamed with absolute terror at Richie as they moved away from the door, forgetting about the limb of a demonic clown that had been trying to reach for them for a moment. The men jumped back towards the opening that contained the three doors, successfully getting away from the arm that tried to grab them once again. They stood close, Eddie looking at the doors with a horrified face as Richie turned his face towards him.

"He's not fucking with us. Let's go to 'Not Scary At All'." He said as they stepped towards it, Eddie agreeing with the man.

Holding the flashlight, Eddie grabbed the handle of the door with the hand he held the spear Beverly had given him tightly, inhaling deeply before he opened the door. The men looked inside carrying the same horrified faces with lips slightly parted, Richie dragging his flashlight around it to see what was inside.

"It's alright. Let's go." Eddie said, looking into the long cave before them. They both took a step forward but paused for a moment once their flashlights dropped down to the ground, revealing a small dog sitting on the ground. It was a _Pomeranian_. They completely stopped their motions, looking down at the dog with both sceptical and horrified expressions.

"Oh, shit." Richie whispered as they both pulled away, their gazes still fixated on the dog. But the dog just stared back at the pair, sticking its tongue out as it breathed.

"No way am I falling through this shit again." Eddie said as he looked back, turning back to face the dog as Richie spoke up.

"Oh yeah, that thing's a fucking monster."

"Richie, make it sit." The man slightly leaned over to the Pomeranian as he whispered: "I know your moves, you little bitch."

Eddie snapped his neck back as he heard a ruffling noise from behind them, seeing the arm after them slowly being pulled away from the narrow way they just ran through.

"Richie?" Richie turned back as well, looking at where Eddie was staring, seeing the entrance empty. "It's gone, man."

"Huh." Richie replied, clearly in disbelief at how Pennywise let them get away easily. "Yeah." Eddie said, pulling his head backwards a little.

"Okay."

"Wait!"

"Okay."

Eddie turned back after Richie's second 'okay', and looked back at the dog, slightly raising his chin up. Richie let out a shaky breath, as he held his flashlight-free hand before his body, flattening his curved fingers before ordering the dog to sit.

"Sit!" The Pomeranian obeyed to the man's command almost immediately, sitting down after wagging its tail two times, revealing its tongue as it breathed.

"He did it." Eddie said; amazement and shock seething from his voice. He let out a soft gasp afterwards, pulled back and relaxed his stiff posture, a small smile forming on his face afterwards.

"Aw, that's cute." Richie said with a surprisingly flat voice, staring down at the dog.

"That's a good boy." Eddie praised the dog as he slightly leaned over, the smile still present on his face.

"That's actually super cute." Richie repeated his statement from before, this time his tone carrying just a tad more emotion in it.

"That's a good boy." Eddie said, his voice changing to a softer one as if he was talking to a baby.

"Are you a good boy?" Eddie continued to talk in his baby voice as Richie started to mirror his tone, speaking softly with the dog with a small smile, feeling safe with how defenseless Eddie was being with the dog.

"Hi, baby."

The dog just looked up at them in silence before turning into a monster out of their nightmares right before them, its corrupted and monstrous face leaking rotten skin and saliva. It let out a growl; its tongue sticking out of his sharp teeth decorated mouth.

The pair shrieked in terror as it launched at them, Eddie stepped out of the doorway just in time, Richie closing the door on the monster's face after the man was out of the way.

"Shit!" He cursed as they started to run back to where they came from, Eddie following Richie behind. "You know, next time we just go through regular 'Scary'." He stated, starting to fasten up his pace as he wanted to get away from the doors as soon as fucking possible.

" _Next time_?" Eddie asked with a horrified tone, hating the thought of it already. He paused for a while as he heard the loud thud of his flashlight hitting the ground, turning back to grab it and let Richie get out of the cave first in the process.

When Richie had finally exited the opening of the cave, happy he and Eddie had successfully passed their nightmarish exam of three-door-hell _alive_ ; he looked around to spot his friends. Instead he found the giant half-spider-half-demonic-clown standing dangerously close to someone he couldn't recognise on the first look. He squinted his eyes and only then he could make out who that was. Pennywise had Mike wrapped up in one of his limbs, slowly squeezing the life out of him like a snake would do to its victims before devouring on them. And Richie being Richie, he just had to help his friend.

Grabbing a stone, the man threw it towards the giant monster, gaining his attention to himself. That must've been enough for Richie to make It let go of Mike as he threw the man to the ground, turning his head towards Richie.

"Wanna play truth or dare? Here's a truth: You're a sloppy bitch!" Richie let out an un-amused short laugh.

"Yeah, that's right! Let's dance! Yippee-ki-aye motherfu-"

Pennywise opened his mouth unnaturally widely, his throat opening up with it, the sharp teeth he had even on its inner walls coming into full-view, revealing the deadlights, captivating the man with their light. The rock in his hand fell down, his mouth gaping open as his eyes rolled to the back of his head, he slowly started to float up with the orange light coming from Its mouth.

Mike looked up from where he was thrown onto, his hands clenched together in front of his chest and against the ground as he gasped for air. He had a sorrowful face, silently thanking Richie for still being alive. Bill had his eyes fixated on the floating man, too, as he slowly gained his breath, trying to get back on his feet from crawling on the dirt.

Eddie exited the cave, stopping in his tracks as he saw the horrifying scene unfold before him; his eyes widening with pure terror as he let out a loud gasp, he took a few steps backwards. The deadlights were slowly sinking down towards Richie while creating small electrical buzzing sounds and clouds of smoke, their originally blue colour reflecting orange through Pennywise's mouth.

The man closed his eyes shut as Richie stayed completely still, a few drops of blood floating up from his nose. And Eddie knew he had to do something to save Richie. His best friend of thirty years and his first and possibly last love was about to get killed right before him and he was not willing to just sit back and watch.

Grabbing his spear, he looked down at it, his fingers around it tightening as he thought, _Can I really do this? Am I really capable of this?_ He was starting to doubt himself but Richie's encouraging words echoed inside his mind.  
 _"You're braver than you think, Eds. You can do anything you want." The man had said to Eddie with a soft, fond smile on his face as he held Eddie's hands tightly, bumping their foreheads together. They pulled back with small smiles on their faces before Richie reached and patted Eddie's cheek, forgetting that he had a fresh stab wound there, making his wound sting in the process._

If Richie thought he was capable of doing anything he wanted, Eddie _could_ do this, couldn't he? He wanted to save Richie; and he was going to do it. No matter what it cost him.

"This; kills monsters." He closed his eyes with the ghost of a smile making the tips of his lips twitch up, he opened them back up and stared down the rusty tip of the spear. He then looked up from it, his hateful gaze getting fixated on the clown. "If you believe it does. If you believe it does!"

Eddie ran towards the edge of the stone platform he was standing on, throwing the spear, aimed right into his mouth. "Beep beep motherfucker!" Richie fell down from Its invisible grasp holding him in mid-air, falling down to the rocks right onto his back with a loud thud.

"Rich?" Eddie called for him with concern, running over to him, crouching down beside him.

"Oh, Rich." He muttered after seeing the man's eyes were still rolled to the back of his head. He tried shaking the man to get him to wake up, Richie didn't even show any signs that he was still alive other than breathing slowly. Eddie swallowed thickly, placing his one knee between Richie's thighs to hover above him, slapping his cheeks lightly, hoping it would be enough to wake him up. Of course, it was _not_ enough.

The man thought for a moment to find a way to wake Richie up. _Did he know anybody that got caught by the dead lights and survived?_

"Bev!" His eyes widened at the realisation. He had to _kiss_ Richie like Ben did back then to wake the young girl up. His heart started to pound rapidly as his stare fell down, his eyes getting fixated on the man's slightly parted lips.

"I really fucking hope this works." Eddie whispered as he cupped his friend's face, looking up into his white, dull eyes.

"Don't let me down, Rich. And don't you _dare_ forgetting about this kiss, you dickwad."

When he was finished, he leaned down and closed the gap between their faces, pressing his lips against Richie's gently. But once he started to move his lips delicately on the other man's motionless ones, he felt like crying. 'Not how I imagined our first time would be but I'll take what I can.' The man thought, continuing to kiss him for a while before he decided to pul away, gently placing his hands on either side of Richie's shoulders.

After a while of anxious waiting, Richie started to wake up from his trance as he blinked continuously for a bit, his eyes widening with pure shock written all over his face as he looked up at the man he loved that was hovering above him. He couldn't say that he was used to seeing Eddie so close to him, the tender warmness of a soft touch against his lips sweetly lingering there.

"Hey, Rich, wake up!" Eddie said cheerily, trying to play it off like he hadn't kissed Richie just a moment ago, patting his shoulders with a smile as he looked down at the absolutely dazed-looking man.

"Hey!" He said happily as the man's eyes finally found the focus they had lost again, watching him blink a few times once again, Richie shook his head before making an actual eye-contact with Eddie.

"Yeah, yeah, there he is, buddy!" He gently shook Richie's shoulder with a huge, fond smile, proud of both saving his love and finally having the honour of killing the bastard.

"Hey Richie, listen. I think I got It man." He looked back at Pennywise as Ben and Beverly ran into the open area of the altar and finally free of their own serving of nightmares, watching the scene unfold before them.

"I think I killed It! I did it! I think I killed It for real-"

Eddie's voice cut off by the awful sound of flesh and clothing ripping open, the bloody tip of Pennywise's spikey-arm sticking out from in front of the man's stomach, splashing Eddie's blood onto Richie's face. Beverly let out a scream of pure terror as Richie gasped loudly, his eyes widening at the sight of Eddie being impaled right before him.

"Eddie..." Richie called his name as Eddie looked down at the ripped open stomach of his, just silently raising his hands and grasping it before turning to look back at Richie, clearly still in shock to actually process what just happened.

"Richie?" He called his name, blood dripping down from his mouth the moment he parted his lips. "Richie, I-"

His words got cut off as the man got pulled to the mid-air by Pennywise, letting out a cry of pain as Richie watched Eddie get dragged away with wide eyes, gasping loudly, his scream got stuck in his throat because of the pure shock and terror he felt.

"No!" Bill cried out, still lying on the ground. Beverly started to cry, her heart aching at the sight of her friend in the air.

"Eddie..." Richie whispered with the most aching, broken voice he had ever heard himself let out, chin trembling with the amount of pain he felt inside of himself.

"No!" Bill shouted once again, watching Eddie's body hit the ground, roll down into the opening of a large, descending cave like a staircase. Richie finally found his voice and cried out, his wide eyes watching as everything happened and ended in just a matter of seconds.

He got to his feet, not giving a shit about the headache he felt deeply in his skull that made his every single vein throb at every given second, he ran towards the narrow caving Eddie had fallen down into, the Losers following him closely behind.

"Eddie!" He called out with pain as he skipped a few stairs(rocks) on his way down, running towards Eddie like a maniac. He didn't care if there was a chance he could fall down and break his neck now, he just wanted to see if the love of his life still lived or not.

"Eds! Eds!" He called, stopping in his tracks and straightening his posture as he looked down to Eddie who was lying down on his stomach on the ground. Mike and Ben rolled himover to his back before slowly helping him lean against a rock nearby.

When he finally had something he could lean his head against, he looked around before looking down at his wound, seeing the blood gushing out of the area right below his chest, some dripping down his mouth and painting his bottom lip and neck in dark red. Richie hated that colour on his Eddie.

"Come out and play, Losers!" Pennywise called for them, knocking over some rocks in an attempt at reaching to them. Richie didn't even look in Its direction while the others flinched by his voice calling for them. He took his jacket off and crouched down before Eddie, pressing it against the wound to try and stop his bleeding.

"H-He's... He's hurt really bad. We-We gotta-we gotta get him out of here." He rambled, starting to panic as he put pressure onto Eddie's stomach, flinching when Eddie groaned in pain.

"How are we supposed to do that, Richie?" Beverly asked, making him look up to her and avoid her gaze after thinking for a while.

"I almost killed it." Eddie spoke up as a whisper, looking up from his wound to distract himself from the pain. "The leper. My hands were on his throat. A-And I could... _F_ _eel_ him choke. I made him small." He looked up at Richie as he explained, his hand rising up to gesture how he choked it before, a small smirk forming on his blood-painted lips.

"He seemed so weak..."

The Losers squeezed Its heart in between their hands with a mixed look of pure disgust and hatred written all over their faces, black thick liquid floating upwards as the clown finally died for good this time. His remaining body and face slowly dissolved into the same black liquid, floating upwards. The deadlights shined bright one last time before dying out themselves.

Everyone started to cheer silently, hugging one another as they smiled brightly. And Bev hugged Richie's arm, resting her forehead against his shoulder. He closed his eyes, wrinkling up his face as he turned back and ran away, chanting Eddie's name repeatedly, only stopping when he got to where they had left Eddie.

"Eddie, we got Pennywise, man." He announced cheerfully, a sincere smile on his lips. But Eddie wasn't answering. _He was already dead_.

"I thought you _died_. I _really_ thought you fucking died, Eds." Richie said, shaking his head. "Then what happened? And _how_ did you even survive the collapsing of that goddamn house?" He asked with a distressed tone, adjusting his posture on the bed.

"Well, _I_ thought I was dead as well for a long time too. But I can tell you it wasn't hard for me to survive the collapse. Because the only thing collapsed was the house. The cave must've shaken a little but it was the same as before, Rich." Eddie admitted; sighing and looking down, stroking the area on his stomach where his scar lied.

"But I opened my eyes like nothing happened in hopes to see you, Richie. I really was hoping to see _you_."

Richie swallowed thickly, looking down at his lap, not wanting Eddie to see the tears in his eyes. "T-They wouldn't let me stay, Eddie. Trust me, I _never_ wanted to leave your side. If it wasn't for Ben and his pretty muscles, I would be still stuck down there, probably kicked off my ass for good before getting a chance to see you alive again."

Eddie nodded slowly as he swallowed thickly before grabbing Richie's collar, starting to play with the soft fabric. He was wearing one of his polo shirts that he possessed of ever colour imaginable; and Eddie loved it, not feeling bothered by that fact even slightly to his surprise.

  
"When I first opened my eyes, I only remembered saving you from some orange lights. I was confused as fuck- _'Why would anyone want to save some dude from a bunch of fucking lights?'_ I thought that until realisation hit me. I was scared shitless when everything just came back to me. I was in a billion-year-old fucking cave under a house all alone in the dark with a massive hole and blood stains all over my body, my hands clutched onto your jacket."

"Then, I remembered you leaving my side to go kill the fucking clown." Eddie said weakly, looking down at his feet. "To finish what I couldn't accomplish by myself. I was so weak... Scared... Fucking helpless... I was a pathetic man who couldn't do shit on his own."

"Hey," Richie said, smiling at him. "Do you remember what I told you before we went down there to perform the ritual?"

"That I'm braver than I think? I really don't know about that, Rich. Remember, at the house, I let that spider thing try to eat you alive until Ben came and killed it. Because I just fucking _froze_. And I couldn't even kill the clown when I got the chance. And I really _did_ believe it killed monsters." Richie gave him a puzzled look before shaking his head and speaking up.

"Just _why_ did you try to kill It, Eds?" The man asked, looking at his friend with a serious expression. Eddie was taken aback by his absurd question.

" _What the fuck_ do you mean 'why'? Of course to save you, you assho-Oh." Richie watched Eddie realise what he was saying, nodding knowingly at the man when they made eye-contact again.

"You _are_ braver than you think, Eddie Spaghetti. Even if you refuse to accept that fact." He gave him a warm smile. "And if you didn't tell us what you did to the leper, we wouldn't be able to figure out what to do that fast."

Eddie smiled, looking down at his feet again before he raised his head and looked up at Richie's face, he decided he had to say it out loud one more time. He held Richie's face between his hands, all the while staring at him with a determined expression that made Richie feel completely dazed. Just like how he felt after Eddie had kissed him out of his trance.

"I really do love you, Trashmouth. Being stuck in a fucking sewer for two days until your body recovers is a long time to think things through. I realised all the mistakes I have ever made, every regret I ever had. This was one of them, Rich. I never got to confess my feelings to you. And I deeply regretted that."

Richie couldn't form any words, he was too happy. His eyes stung with the need to cry and his throat felt dry. He just gulped, resuming to look into Eddie's eyes, making the man before him groan with frustration, rubbing the bridge of his nose once again. Richie noted the man's new habit instantly. Eddie finally let go of his nose before looking back at Richie with a distressed frown.

"Look, if you confessed to me back just because the moment felt right and you just said it without feeling it... Let us go on a few dates while you just pretend you love me before you dump me and I'll even forget about that stupid excuse of a love letter you decided to write for some reason."

"You're really stuck on that letter, aren't you?" He teased, his grin instantly vanishing the way Eddie looked. He rubbed thighs, shaking his head before he stared down at their feet.

"I didn't know if you were going to even come back to me, Eds. Go easy on the man." He said, finally looking up to meet Eddie's eyes; his breath hitched in his throat at the sigh the saw before him. The man was looking back at him with a weak smile, the fondness in his eyes present as ever. But he still looked absolutely gorgeous and Richie knew just how lucky he was to finally have his grumpy Spaghetti Man back.

"Besides, I don't need to pretend. _I know well enough_."

He said before he got up and stood between Eddie's legs to place his hands on the man's shoulders before leaning down and starting to kiss the man he had loved for so long. Eddie smiled into their sweet kiss, his one arm sneaking around Richie's waist as his other hand grasped the back of one of the man's thighs, cautiously pulling him onto his lap.

Richie gasped softly into Eddie's mouth as he felt Eddie's hand knead the meat of his thigh, the man saw that as a chance to deepen the kiss. His tongue grazed over and between his lips, trying to get a taste of him. Richie happily parted his lips again, their tongues starting to dance-fight for dominance. Eddie guided the man's hands towards his neck and hummed into Richie's mouth when he wrapped his arms around it; he grasped Richie's waist and rolled them over onto the bed.

Their lips separated for a moment when Richie's back gently collided with the mattress but Eddie reconnected them with great hunger, refusing to waste any more time. He had been craving this for so long and all the patience he had was gone in an instant the moment their lips touched.

Richie accepted Eddie's dominance over him with great pleasure and wrapped his legs around his hips, pulling the man down closer to him. He had to put one of his elbows against the bed on one side of Richie's head to contain his balance as he hovered over the man, the other starting to stroke the outline of his ribs over his shirt. After a while of kissing, Richie reached for Eddie's shirt and tugged at the hem of it for the man to take it off.

Eddie pulled away, a ghost of a smirk lingered on his lips as he reached for Richie's shirt instead of his own, tugging it off first before he reached down to take his own off. He heard the man he was straddling wolf-whistle at the sight, he smiled as he tugged it off of his head and threw it somewhere in the middle of the room, making eye-contact with Richie.

"Like what you see, Trashmouth?" Eddie teased the man as he wigged his eyebrows as a bad joke. Richie covered his mouth with his hands as he eyed the man up and down before placing his hands on Eddie's toned chest, his fingertips grazing over the still-irritated, pinkish golden scar tissue that looked like it was just paint that had been splashed over his belly.

"Very."

The man's almost immediate response made Eddie look down at it as well; suddenly feeling overly exposed and insecure about his massive scar took place just below his chest. He quickly held Richie's hands, desperately wanting them away from the source of his insecurity, he pinned Richie's wrists against the mattress.

"Pretty ugly, huh?" Eddie asked after seeing the how closely Richie examined his scar with his eyes this time, looking down at the man he had against the bed.

"Pretty, yeah." He replied, smiling up at him.

"What?"

Eddie surely wasn't expecting that answer. He was expecting Richie to crack a joke, to ignore his question or maybe even agree with him. Richie saw his internal conflict, and decided to make it clear he was, in fact, being completely serious.

He gently tapped against Eddie's hands that were pinning his wrists against the mattress underneath him and reached up for his face when he was free of them. He smiled warmly at him and slowly dragged his hands down, one hand remaining on his left cheek as the other brushed passed his neck and collarbones; stopping at his relatively large scar. He traced over it gently, his eyes never breaking the loving eye-contact he had with Eddie.

"I think it's absolutely beautiful, Eds. It's not ugly; it's a part of you." He assured the man, his thumb starting to stroke his cheek. "Nothing belongs to you could ever be ugly." Eddie smiled after that, grabbed Richie's hand on his cheek and kissed his palm as his free hand caressed his side, sliding down to his hip.

"Then you have to stop calling yourself an ugly piece of shit."

Richie's eyes widened after that and he opened his mouth to say something but all his thoughts as well as words were cut off by the hungry lips of Eddie's attacking his. Richie immediately started to kiss him back, feeling Eddie's hand that was on his hip slightly dig its fingertips into his flesh, his lower waist starting to slowly grind against his clothed entrance.

He felt like they had too much layers between their skins and tugged at Eddie's hips, his legs slowly unwrapping from there. "What's wrong, Rich? Do you not want it?" Eddie asked with concern, looking down at Richie.

"We can stop if you feel uncomfortable."

As he started to pull back, Richie let out a huff of desperate annoyance before grabbing the back of his neck and pulled Eddie's face towards his. He tilted his head and whispered into his ear with a low voice before kissing the shell of it.

"I want you."

Eddie groaned after that and sunk his teeth into Richie's bare shoulder, sliding his tongue along his skin until he reached to his ear and started to nibble onto the shell of it, breathing over it to tease the man as much as he could. "Then you will get what you want, Rich."

Eddie pulled away from him, his eyes widened after seeing Richie's pale cheeks tinted up with a rather deep shade of red; the man's hands cupping his face to cover it up but they did a pretty poor job.

"Blushing because of the Wheezy Kid? Wow, Trashmouth, that's real low for you."

"Eds, you literally called me 'Trashmouth' while accusing me of liking low. And dude- _holy shit!_ Have you _seen_ yourself? Why are you fucking _ripped_? We are literally forty!" He whined, his eyes scanning the man above him. "You were supposed to have beer belly instead of muscles like that! I feel like an ugly pig looking at your body."

"What did we just talk about, Richie?" Eddie asked as he reached down and palmed the man over his painfully tight jeans, his lips following Richie's jawline. "You told me nothing belonged to me could be ugly. So, don't call yourself that."

"But Eddie-" The man gasped as Eddie's hands started to unbuckle his belt, his fingers purposefully grazing over his crotch, making sure to take their sweet time doing so.

"Yes, Rich?"

"I don't belong to you." Eddie's smirk faded as Richie's lips tugged upwards. "You haven't taken me yet, Spaghetti Man. Until you stop the teasing and actually get on with it, you don't get to call me yours."

Eddie's half-smirk was back now, he finally quickly undid Richie's buckle and zipper, yanking his jeans off of Richie before he took his own off as he got back to bed, leaning in to hover over him again. The man placed his hands on Eddie's shoulder blades, lightly massaging them as his lips started to travel down Richie's body, starting the journey from his neck, sucking down dark red bruises all over his torso that would turn purple after a while.

Richie moaned underneath him, his fingernails digging into his skin as his hips buckled upwards in a desperate need of feeling a friction. Eddie's hands grasped his hips and pushed them back into the bed, preventing him from doing so.

"What the _fuck_ , man? I'm trying to get off here!"

He protested the way he got prevented, silencing himself when he felt Eddie's fingertips sink into his flesh once again. Then they tugged at the waistband of his underwear for a moment before suddenly yanking them down, making Richie gasp underneath him. Eddie smiled and took his own off, leaned over to kiss Richie again before he sunk down, his lips ghosting over his abdomen as his fingers massaged his sides and hips.

Eddie continued to pepper kisses and hickeys all over his skin, slowly sinking down towards his thighs but he avoided touching Richie's arousal on purpose. That made the man whine with frustration until Eddie's lips pressed against his inner thighs; started to suck on the sensitive skin to push the man over the edge. Richie held his moans back as best as he could, rolling his head back against the bed. When he found the strength to look back down again, he had at least ten different hickeys painted reddish purple decorating all around both of his inner thighs.

"I love you, Rich."

He heard Eddie mutter to himself as he took one of his hands off of the man's hips and wrapped around his length. Richie groaned with pleasure as his head rolled into the mattress once again, arching his back to lean into the man's touch. Eddie started to pump his hand up and down as his other hand groped one of his ass cheeks, looking up at his face.

"Can I?" He asked, pulling himself up and towards above Richie's face as his hand continued its motion on his length. Richie looked up at him quizzically as he kept gasping and moaning, Eddie slid his thumb across his tip, making the man groan loudly before he sunk his teeth into his bottom lip to muffle his moans.

To complete his half-silent question, Eddie tapped gently against his ass; making Richie swallow thickly at the sensation. He pulled he man into a short, heated kiss, starting to suck a mark on his neck before he pulled back, and nodded with desperation; rolling hips into Eddie's hand that was still grasping his ass.

After getting the permission he needed, he looked around aimlessly, turning back to Richie. "Do you have lube? Oh, wait-"

He smiled as he remembered something and pecked Richie's swollen lips before getting up, and walked over to his second suitcase that Richie had never thought about touching before. He opened the zipper and dug around, pulling his hand back as he fished out a bottle and a small, square box. He opened the box, took out one condom and tossed the box back into the suitcase; walked back to the bed without closing it back up.

The man climbed back onto the bed and let Richie's arms pull him close, their chests colliding roughly as they crashed their lips together. Richie slowly dragged his fingernails against Eddie's scalp after playing with his locks, their lips dancing against each other, their hips grinding against one another.

Richie attacked the man's neck after Eddie pulled away for air, his hands moving down to massage his back as his lips worked on the skin, leaving dark coloured marks all along his skin where he could reach. Eddie tilted his head to the other side, giving more room for the man to work on, shuddering and moaning under his lips.

They kissed one more time before Eddie pulled back fully and sat straight between Richie's thighs. Richie watched Eddie open the bottle, smirking when he remembered where he had found it. "Why did you even bring that with you?"

He questioned just to tick him off as Eddie coated his two fingers with the lube, rubbing them together to warm up the semi-cold liquid. He could hear the smirk in Richie's voice without even looking up at his face. But he still did, furrowing his eyebrows together and slightly leaned over to Richie.

Eddie closed the lid of the bottle, shrugging carelessly in contrast with the slight blush on his semi-visible freckled cheeks. He returned to his old position between his legs after putting the bottle down, Richie spread them wider for the man. He looked up and slowly started to push one finger in after Richie's nod of approval.

"Maybe I was hoping that I could fuck you." He muttered, hearing Richie's breathy laugh as he shifted on his back, the finger in the process of entering him giving him a weird sensation.

"How romantic."

"Shut up." He muttered again as he waited a bit for Richie to adjust to his finger, slowly starting to thrust it in and out. The man wrinkled his nose, looking down at what Eddie was doing.

"Should I stop? Does it hurt?" He questioned, stopping his motions all together. That earned him a quiet whine and a violent shaking of a head.

"No, I want us to keep going. It just feels weird.... It's been a while since I've last done this." Eddie nodded, continuing to stretch him up.

"Add another in." Richie said and Eddie nodded before gently pushing his middle finger inside the man.

Adding the second in must've felt different because the moment he pushed it in, Richie let out a semi-loud moan, looking up at the man with wide eyes. He coughed awkwardly as Eddie smiled at him with a knowing glint in his eyes.

"So, that just happened-Oh, _fuck_!" He moaned loudly at mid-sentence because of the way Eddie curved hid fingers at a delicious angel and started thrusting them at a fast pace before looking down at Richie with a gentle smile, happy that the man had finally started to feel good. And after a while, he added the third one in when he felt the pressure around his fingers loosen up a bit, making Richie grind his teeth before gasping aloud.

The hotel room was filled with noises Richie was making, Eddie's member constantly twitched at both the sight and the heavenly noises he was ripping out from him. Richie soon reached down, finally stopping his motions with his hand, shuddering at the fullness.

"That's enough." Richie was panting as he harshly grinded his hips against the man's fingers, trying to feel more friction from them. "Please take me. I'm ready."

"Are you sure? Safety is _very_ important with anal sex, Richie. I don't want to hurt you or cause you serious dama-" Richie rolled his eyes.

"Are you planning on telling me every single detail about tissue tearing and the possible treatments for it as well, Kaspbrak? I think I know more about gay sex than you."

"Well, asshole, I'm trying to make sure you're ready so there won't be-"

His worried words were cut off by Richie's hand that slipped down to his length, slowly and teasingly stroking his leaking tip. His lips parted with pleasure as he closed his eyes, his breaths coming out as sharp, constant sighs. He smiled innocently at the man above him and gave him a toothy grin when he opened his eyes and looked down at him with narrow, hooded eyes.

"Come on, Eds." He bit his bottom lip. "I think we both know I'm more than ready."

Eddie was aware that he couldn't take any more pleading. He grabbed the bottle again and covered himself with a thin layer before slipping the condom on, immediately coating a thick layer of lube this time, pumping his hand a few times as he took his fingers out of Richie, lining himself against his now well-stretched entrance. He leaned over and linked their hands together.

"Ready, sexy?" Richie smirked as he nodded.

"You called me 'sexy' just because it rhymed with ready, didn't you?"

Eddie smiled as he rolled his eyes and started to push himself inside of the man as slowly as possible. Richie cried out in pain when he felt Eddie stretch open his rim, starting to take rushed and sharp breaths as he panicked. The pressure on himself lessened just a bit when Eddie's tip filled his insides, the man huffed with a pained relief, clenching his teeth together. It fucking hurt a lot. Eddie stopped himself when he saw how much pain Richie was in, looking down at the man with a worried expression.

"Hey," he said with a loving voice, making Richie struggle to open his eyes and look up at him. "We can stop anytime you want, Rich." He said, one of his hands letting go of Richie's to stroke his cheek, gently sliding across his cheekbone in a soothing way.

"I hate the thought of hurting you."

That sentence full of pure love and worry made Richie choke out a muffled sob. He wiped his eyes before he grabbed Eddie's shoulder as wrapped his legs around his waist, starting to slowly pul him closer, making Eddie move deeper inside him along with his hips. The man started to push in as well after a moment of hesitation, helping Richie as he wiped the man's escaping tears away.

"Why are you crying? Does it hurt that much?" Richie shook his head firmly, looking up at Eddie's eyes filled with love and lust, then down to his lips that smiled softly down at him, and then looked back up to the general of his face that stared back at him with a worried gaze.

"I'm getting used to it. It's... I just can't believe this is actually happening." He said, leaning into his touch, moaning loudly when he felt the man's hips slap against the back of his thighs. Eddie was finally fully inside. He tried to relax and Eddie's soothing praises and words with gentle touches helped him a lot.

"Damn, I think my kink is praising, huh Eds?" He joked, muttering a curse under his breath when Eddie pulled out a bit before slowly thrusting back into the man. Eddie smiled as he pushed Richie's hair back, pressing their foreheads together.

"You've been taking it absolutely amazing, Rich." He said, kissing his nose. "But now I'll start moving, okay? I don't think I can hold back anymore, you feel too good, baby." Richie desperately nodded, wanting to feel all of him.

"I want to feel you, Spaghetti Man." He lowly moaned as Eddie gently pulled back. "And, Eds?" Eddie looked down at Richie with confusion.

"I want you to fuck me like there's no tomorrow."

The man couldn't help the way his hips thrust forward into Richie when he heard his last sentence almost automatically, ripping a loud moan from him, his eyes shooting open. Richie's jaw dropped as he panted roughly, shaking his head.

"...Do that again."

Eddie didn't obey at first because he still didn't want to hurt Richie. So he was being gentle and careful instead, slowly pulling back and thrusting forward, letting the man underneath him adjust to the new feeling. But soon, he was going to burst from going too slow.

Still, Eddie must've noticed the desperation on Richie's face since he started to fasten his pace as the man grasped one of his biceps while his other hand had a fistful of Eddie's hair that had started to curl up slightly at the ends. Eddie groaned at the small shock waves of pleasure that jolted down his spine and all around his body from the ends of his hair, starting to buckle his hips harder into Richie, shifting over to his knees to change the angle a bit. The man cried out in pleasure as Eddie hit a specific spot inside his inner walls and bit into his upper arm to muffle his voice. But after that moan, Eddie felt like all of his remaining self-control had been shattered into a million pieces.

And after that, Eddie steadied himself one last time in the same position, and just a few moments later, he was straight up pounding into Richie hard and fast, making both of them gasping for air, their hands roaming all around one another's bodies, their lips sucking marks all over the places they could reach whenever they managed to catch a huff of breath to spare.

"Eds, oh fuck!" Eddie leaned over Richie as he kept his fast motions going, their lips colliding into one another from the friction of their bodies every now and then, their hot, sharp breaths burning each other's faces as they panted for air desperately.

"We fit-oh fuck, Rich! We fit so well together! Fuck! You're so tight!"

Richie just moaned loudly at that, feeling loved and full to the max. He loved the feeling of being one with Eddie after waiting for so long. He failed to remember ever forgetting about Eddie at that moment. Everything just felt _right_. The way Eddie was holding him, the way he was hitting his prostate nearly with every thrust, the way their skins felt rubbing against each other.

Eddie wasn't any different. He loved the way they fit so perfectly with each other, the way Richie felt around him, the way they panted and moaned almost in synch. He loved every second of it. He watched closely the way Richie arched his back as he moaned Richie's name, his hips colliding with the man's with loud slapping sounds. It was almost overwhelming. He was very close.

"You're so beautiful, Richie. You're so gorgeous, so-so pretty." He praised him as Richie grabbed a handful of his hair harshly before he pulled the man close, crashing their lips together in a heated, sloppy, hungry kiss. They pulled away as Eddie stroked the man's hips delicately, kept thrusting into him like his life depended on it.

"I... I'm close!" Richie informed him between his loud moans and pants, rolling his head against the mattress when Eddie hit his prostate once again, feeling him lick a long stripe along his collarbone.

"Yeah!"

Eddie said as he grasped the man, his one hand starting to pump Richie as the other steadied himself, fastening his pace as much as he could with loud groans and moans. The man squirmed under Eddie's touch, starting to see stars behind his eyes, his hands grasped the sheets as he hit his spot one more time more violent than ever, both coming at the same time, screaming one another's name.

The both men were panting, shuddering as they came down from their highs, Eddie pulled out with the smallest moves to not hurt Richie, lube making the man's now-stretched entrance sticky along with a red liquid. His eyes widened as Richie held out his arms, letting them fall limp onto the bed, his chest rising up and down incredibly fast. Eddie gave him a chaste kiss before he quickly got up, Richie whining about it until he came back with a damp cloth to clean his lover.

Richie smiled at him when he felt the cold towel slide across his chest, winching slightly as Eddie gently swiped the cloth over his hole, looked down and saw the blood stain on it. Eddie looked at Richie with a worried frown before sitting down and pulling the man closer, he wrapped his arms around him, surrounding him in a cocoon of security.

"You're so beautiful. I'm so proud of you." He whispered, placing delicate, gentle kisses all over the man's damp hair and his sweaty forehead.

"I'm so fucking proud of you, Rich. I love you." He then moved down, this time capturing his bitten, chapped lips between his own before giving Richie the sweetest kiss of his life. That made him tear up again, _Eddie really did love him_.

"I love you too, Spaghetti."

Eddie snorted, shaking his head fondly as he got up again, walked over to the suitcase and opened it for the second time that day and grabbed a small first-aid kit. He then opened it, took a tube out before walking back over to Richie with a warm smile on his face.

"Spread your legs a little, this will help with the soreness." Richie nodded; spreading his legs as Eddie gently applied the ointment to his throbbing entrance, making it feel instantly better.

"You really did come prepared for this, huh? You wanted me this much?" Richie joked, a half-smirk displayed on his lips.

" _I did_." He said, not looking up from the tube as he screwed the lid close, looking up at his wide eyes. "From the very moment I remembered who you were and how much you meant for me."

The man kissed Richie's knee before getting up and put the tube back into the kit, closed the suitcase and returned to bed, smiling at the still-shocked looking man. He shook his head, pushing Richie away before lying down beside him. Richie turned to him, lying on his side, and reached his hand out and letting his fingertips tap against his scar. Eddie didn't argue this time, just let the man do as he pleased until they both fell asleep, their limbs tangled together with the blanket covering only the half of their bodies.

* * *

_The man opened his eyes after a while because of the sudden ache he felt in his temples. He tried to sit down to rub at his forehead but he realised that he couldn't move. Starting to panic slightly, he listened to his surroundings and he could hear a faint and robotic-sounding applaud coming from all around him; but it was just as silent as before in a moment afterwards. Just pure silence. He felt like he was floating but his feet still touched something. It was the weirdest feeling he had remembered feeling before._

_"I'm expecting a huge applaud for your favourite Trashmouth! Here comes the one and the only Richie Tozier, everyone!" Another as distorted voice echoed around the man again, but this time he could hear it much clearer. The man looked around him, only then realised that he managed to move again, seeing nothing but darkness surrounding him._

_"Eds? Eddie? Eddie!"_

_He called out for him; turning to face the side he remembered the man was fell asleep on, but saw just an empty space beside him on the bed. He turned back around, still seeing only darkness. He furrowed his eyebrows as he lowered his gaze, his bare chest now covered in ridiculous colours, a red blob between his eyes. He was wearing a clown costume and was now standing on his feet without even realising he did that._

_"Ladies and gentlemen, we have brought the one and only Richard Tozier himself to your presence!" He heard another voice call out, this time uncomfortably close to his ear, loud laughter and applaud following the voice, making him cower under the humiliating possibility of a group seeing him like this while he still couldn't see shit._

_"Mhw mwah mwuh!(What the fuck!)" The man tried to speak up, a tight and as painful tugging at his lips that was pressing them together prevented him from getting his words out clearly._

_"He's better off like this, don't you think?" He heard a very familiar voice this time, but it still sounded wrong; very wrong. It was too wheezy and demonic to belong him._

_After the voice, he felt a cold touch on his cheeks and chest and looked down, seeing that he was naked again. He then spotted the black, dripping stain on his stomach where Eddie's scar was located on the man's own belly._

_"Don't touch the other boys, Richie," A loud, wheezy whisper made him shudder in terror. He knew who that voice belonged to a tad too well. "Or they'll know what you are."_

_"Leave me alone!"_

_He could shout this time and hearing his own shaky, terrified voice made him want to cry. He fell down to his knees and grabbed fists of his hair as the voices he had heard previously started to get closer to him with each ticking second. From the corner of his eye he saw something bright illuminate him and the floor he was sitting on as a circle. Thanks to the light, he now had a slight chance to see what was happening around him. And he looked around to the area to spot the upcoming threat before it actually happened._

_He first heard a dripping sound followed by feet skipping against the ground, then creepy whispers of all kinds all around him, but he didn't see any movements yet. He then heard the irritating jingle coming from a particular clown's outfit. His eyes darted around to try to spot It, soon seeing the tip of his grey boots just outside the circle of light._

_He was about to yell at him again before he heard a loud scream that made him shudder in fear. He knew who had screamed. And as if to erase any doubts Richie had in mind, a puddle of blood started to form from under the grey boots and a bitten off arm fell into the puddle with a loud splashing sound, making Richie gasp and flinch with fright. The arm had the same yellow raincoat cloth wrapped around it that Georgie had been wearing the day he died._

_"Georgie..." He choked out, slowly reaching for Georgie's arm before he was stopped by another familiar sound the second time that sent shivers down his spine. It was Eddie again. Eddie's corrupted, Neibolt version._

_Richie got stunned to the floor he was sitting on as individual sets of demonic giggles and choking sounds echoed all around him. He soon felt a liquid dripping down on him; he tried to lift his head up to see what it was but he got prevented by a force he couldn't feel psychically._

_"Hey, Richie," Neibolt Eddie asked, his loud, maniacal laughter made him choke out a subtle sob._ _"Wanna play loogie?" And before Richie could even think about forming an answer, he heard him giggle again, the black, thick liquid provided by him starting to form a small puddle on another side of the circle._

_"I've always wondered... Why are you always talking anyway?"_

_The corrupted Eddie asked another question with an overly-irritated tone, and soon after, he started to hear that clicking sound against the floor again. He turned around to spot a movement; soon seeing what was causing them. It was the doll that he had found in the coffin of himself in the Neibolt house._

_The porcelain doll kept on walking and walking until the tips of its shoes reached the outline of the circle of light. It looked up from where it was staring down at, the moving maggots decorating one side of its pale cheeks made Richie want to throw up. Its lifeless white eyes stared right into Richie's terrified ones, as it raised one of its arms and pointed at him.  
Richie looked down and saw that he was wearing the same t-shirt he wore when he went to the Neibolt House with Bill and Eddie. And, of course, the very same t-shirt the doll was wearing._

_He heard the Eddie's giggle again before loud skipping noises. And soon, the black ooze covered hands grabbed the doll from its waist and held it up just to press its back against his chest as the two Neibolt kids stared right at Richie with almost identical, haunting smirks._

_"I already have an Eddie." The doll spoke up, ripping the black threads that had been keeping its mouth shut in the process. Its voice was something Richie had never heard before. It was like listening to a man who didn't stop smoking for eighty years. It was cold, hoarse, rusty and completely inhuman. The doll tilted its head, a loud cracking sound came from its neck.  
_

_"Where's yours, Richie?" It said before fixing its neck with another crack. Corrupted Eddie giggled after nodding and rested his chin against the top of Doll-Richie's head._

_"Please... Please just leave me alone..."_

_Richie cried, forcing himself to look away from the two. He then gasped and screamed in terror when something hit him square in the face._ _He tried to swat away whatever had been stuck onto his face and finally managed to hit the paper and made it fall to the ground right before him. It was the missing poster of himself he had found stuck in the cobwebs._

_  
He felt sick and actually gagged this time._

_"Richie."_

_He heard a gentle whisper calling his name; his eyes watered when he recognised who it belonged to. He looked up at the bright spotlight that illuminated his figure, feeling absolutely exposed now the t-shirt was gone again. His hands touched his bare, shivering, and cold skin. He wrapped his arms around his stomach and tried his best to appear as small as possible just like how he felt at that moment:  
_ _Small, helpless, afraid and absolutely alone. Just like how he felt at the park and the arcade when he was thirteen.  
_

_The spotlight's light started to change its white colour into blue, then separated into three orbs, soon the boy heard the too familiar electrical buzzing and got wrapped by a thick layer of black smoke. Between the black clouds, he saw Eddie's face smiling down at him as he held his hands out, reaching down to Richie._

_He sobbed with relief this time, stood up and raised his hands; soon feeling the man's warm hands grasp his own tightly._

_"Wake up, Rich!" Eddie said with a panicked tone despite his bright smile and started to pull him up towards the deadlights behind him. The man didn't budge for a bit but soon he felt his feet lift off the ground. He was floating in mid-air, having nothing to stand on underneath to support him._

_"Richie!" Eddie shouted this time, still wearing the same smile and opened his mouth. Thick blood dripped down to his face from the man's open mouth. Richie screamed with terror as his vision got blocked by the blood of the man he loved and soon, his grip started to slip out of his hands. Eddie coughed and smiled one last time before his hands went limp and Richie fell back down to the ground right onto his back._

* * *

"Aagh!"

He let out a soul-crushing shriek as he woke up from his nightmare because of the fall he had experienced; he felt a pair of hands shake his shoulders violently. He looked up at the blurry face he saw before him and saw that it was Eddie who were hovering above him. He then felt the slight throb of a light slap against his cheek, hearing the muffled voice of the man.

"Oh, Richie..." Eddie whispered as he pulled the man up and close to him by his shoulders, hugging him tightly. When Richie felt his warmness against his body, he relaxed his stiff posture and hugged him back, starting to sob uncontrollably into his chest.

"Hey, Richie, it's okay." Eddie whispered as he gently rubbed his hand against Richie's back, one hand dipped into his locks to stroke his still-damp hair. "It's okay, Rich... It's over. I'm here now."

Richie just kept sobbing; his hands still holding onto the man's shoulder blades like his life depended on them. Eddie slowly pulled him into his lap and let him sit between his crossed legs, one of Richie's legs dangling onto the bed over the other one. He kept on crying until he felt better but he was still clinging to Eddie, clearly not thinking about letting go soon. The man certainly didn't mind that but he was very worried about Richie.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked with a soft voice after pecking the top of his head, reaching to push his hair off of his face.

"Y-Yes please."

As Richie told him his nightmare, Eddie listened his words as he examined the man's now-exposed body, seeing his overly-visible ribs and slender figure clearly. It pained him to see him like this but he didn't speak up until Richie was finished.

"Today must've triggered something in me, Eduardo." Eddie nodded, his worried gaze still lingering on Richie. The man got nervous the longer Eddie didn't speak up, his shoulders stiffened with anxiety.

"You okay, Eds?"

"Huh? Yes, but hey, Rich... Um, I was wondering if you were eating enough. I saw your body and you are unhealthily skinny. I'm worried about you." Richie felt his heart clench at his words. Deep down he knew damn well that Eddie meant well but his anxiety kicked in, making him feel overly-insecure about how his body looked and the man went into defense mode almost instantly; glaring down at the mattress.

"I don't need you to worry about me, Eddie, okay? I already have so much on my mind right now and I can't add your worries onto them! Why can't you just leave me alone sometimes to actually think things through on my own?" He yelled, his eyes widening the moment his words came out.

"I wish you would realise that you actually can share your problems with me as much as I do, Richie."

Richie looked up at the man; Eddie felt sadness rushed through him the moment their eyes made contact. His eyes were tired and bloodshot, deep, dark circles under his eyes. He really didn't look like he was fine at all. Eddie sighed, his eyes studying his slender form once again. Richie saw that, crawled out of his lap and onto the bed; covered himself with the thin grey blanket as fast as he could before turning away from him so he was lying on his side, his back facing Eddie.

The man wasn't oblivious to his body language; this was the least harmful way of Richie telling Eddie to fuck off. He used to do this whenever Eddie was actually being an annoying little shit. And he knew from experience that if he didn't respect his wish _now_ and stayed by his side, they wouldn't be able to talk about it after Richie was done 'thinking things through'.

So, he stood up and walked towards the bedroom door with a few pieces of clothing in his hands that he had gathered on the way but couldn't care about matching together. Once he opened it, he turned around one last time and saw Richie's exposed shoulders shake violently as he sobbed into the pillows trying to be as silent as possible but still loud enough for Eddie to hear them. He closed the door and dropped the clothes onto the ground, not caring that they weren't neatly folded.

He quickly walked back to the bed and put one of his hands on top of the man's head in a comforting way, starting to play with his hair in the way he knew he liked when he was a kid. After a few minutes of continuous sobbing, Richie turned around, revealing his tear-soaked red face to Eddie. He looked down at his lap as he slowly sat up straight and wrapped his arms tightly around Eddie's torso, clearly not planning on letting go soon.

Eddie didn't hesitate to hug him back, starting to rub circles on his back as he slowly pressed kisses all over to the top of his hair. Richie began sobbing once again, speaking up in a shaky whisper.

"I'm sorry I said those things, Eddie. I really didn't mean any of what I said; I was just horrified by the nightmare and I wasn't sure if I was still dreaming or not." Richie sobbed again, sniffing his nose afterwards.

"I was so scared of being right, Eds. I'm _still_ so fucking scared of being right..."

"It's okay, Rich." Edie said, tightening his grip on the broken man. "I'm not going anywhere, okay? I'm _here_ , and everything will be alright. I promise."

Richie had a ghost of a smile tugged at his trembling lips as he slightly raised his head to the air, making Eddie grin widely at that small smile. This was a chance to change the man's mood.

"Was our little grumpy Trashmouth smiling? Rich, I'm not letting you smile if you're sad. Either you have to stop the crying or stop your beautiful smile from happening."

"You're such a dork, Eds." He said, his lips hosting a bigger smile now. Eddie chuckled and fell back to the mattress, closing his eyes. Richie watched him lie down there for a few moments with a nervous smile on his lips, biting down onto the bottom one. The man flinched when Eddie opened his eyes with a smirk and looked up at him.

"Take a photo Tozier, they last remarkably longer." Richie quickly turned his head away, mumbling a quiet apology. Eddie furrowed his eyebrows with worry as he straightened his posture against the bed using one of his elbows to steady himself on the mattress. He quietly reached for his shoulder to grab it and gave him a gentle smile when Richie turned to look at him.

"I was just flirting with you the way you used to do with me, Rich. Why are you so stiff now? Are you regretting what we did?" The man sighed, shaking his head no.

"No, of course, not. I... I was just wondering if you'd cuddle me. Y'know? Spooning kind of cuddling?" He finished his mumbling and immediately started to wave his hands around. "But I'll understand if you find it weird since I am the taller one. But I just-"

Eddie cut him off by pulling him down onto the bed by the shoulder he was still holding and made him fall onto his side, facing Eddie with wide eyes. Eddie rolled his before motioning him to turn around. Richie swallowed thickly and eyed his body up and down before he finally turned his back.

"We don't need stereotypes in here, Rich." Eddie whispered as he wrapped an arm around him to pull him closer against his chest. The man scooted closer, too, until every part of their bodies were pressed up against one another. Richie held the arm that sneaked over his side from underneath his armpit and kissed Eddie's knuckles, making him silently chuckle into the crook of his neck. He finally felt completely _safe_.

"I may be shorter than you but that doesn't change one fucking fact. _Tozier, you deserve to be held the way you want to be held_. And as long as you allow me to, I'll be the one who will hold you and assure you everything will be okay. Because there's always a tomorrow and you'll never know what it can bring until you actually reach the sunrise."

"Thank you, Eds. I never knew you had a poet in you."

"Don't call me that. And I don't have a fucking poet in me. I'm no Bill." He faked his grumpiness as he mumbled into Richie's hair, smiling and kissing the skin underneath his ear afterwards.

"Eddie-o, Bill is an _author_." There was a long pause after that.

"Shut up. And I also want to apologise to you." Eddie said, paused for a bit but spoke up again before Richie had the time to ask him why.

"I sounded like I didn't care about your nightmare when I changed the subject like that. But my only intention was to distract you from it and I also wanted to know if you were properly taking care of yourself. I'm sorry, Rich." He whispered before kissing his temple as he tightened his grip on Richie.

"And I don't care what you say, in the morning we are getting a proper breakfast for you."

Richie groaned and swatted at the man's hands to try to get away from Eddie. But he simply ignored his grumpy groans and failing attempts at pulling away from his grip, smiling brightly when Richie finally realised he wasn't getting away.  
They both closed their eyes to a nightmare-free slumber at last, holding one another close. One finally felt the security he sought, while the other felt the happiness of being the source of that secureness.

* * *

" _Oh fuck_ , Eddie, there are so many messages!" Richie exclaimed; his eyes wide with terror, showing his phone screen to the man that was seated before him. "Can you read them for me?"

Eddie shook his head as he bit into his omelette, starting to chew the mouthful egg slowly. "I _so_ _fortunately_ am not your secretary, Mr Comedian. Read them yourself."

"But then I won't be able to eat anything at all, Eds." He whined, showing his untouched plate. "Isn't that why we're here? Have some mercy, man!"

Eddie's eyes darted down to the man's plate, narrowing his eyes when he saw it, he sighed deeply as he snatched the man's phone from his hand. Richie smiled brightly, groaning at the plate just a second later, starting to poke the food with his fork.

"Why did you order so much food, Eds? I don't think I can eat all of this." Eddie looked at him, shaking his head.

"Richard, you only have two pancakes and a sausage on your plate. Eat up." He ordered without looking at Richie, reading over the messages. "Besides when we were kids, you could eat three burgers and even my fries if I wasn't feeling like eating them."

Richie stabbed the sausage on his plate with a disgusted expression before starting to nibble on the meat. "Eds..." He smirked as Eddie looked over at him with an eyebrow raised.

"I'd much rather eat another kind of meat than this motherfucker, if y'know what I mean." He said, wiggling his eyebrows as he waved his fork around.

"Your manager wants you to contact him as soon as possible, and to me, he sounds fucking furious." He stated as he read through the messages, completely ignoring the man's dirty comment.

"There are a fuck load of messages from the Losers both from the group chat and individually..."

He paused, starting to read some of them. He gasped as he read one message, his eyes widening as he choked on his own spit. He quickly typed something on the phone and put it down before turning back to his plate and started to pick at his eggs. Richie opened his mouth with a smirk but before he could say anything, Eddie looked up at him, the puzzled look on his face making his smirk vanish away.

"What did you see? Did I have a secret lover that I had forgotten all about?" Eddie shook his head, pointing at the man's plate with his fork.

"Eat up first. I'll tell you once you're finished."

Richie nodded before he started to slowly eat the food on his plate, stuffing his belly as much as he could until he felt sick. He looked up at Eddie with an apologetic look on his face, shaking his head as he pushed the plate away from himself.

"I'm sorry Eds, but this is the furthest I can get now." Eddie looked away from his own nearly-finished plate, examining how much Richie had eaten. Richie saw his sceptical look and shook his head again.

"If I take another bite, I'll flood this diner with my vomit which _really_ would not be a pleasant sight." Eddie smiled at him and reached over the table to hold the hand Richie had placed on the table, his thumb starting to gently rub against his knuckles.

"It's more than okay, Richie." The man assured, giving him another warm smile. "I'm happy that you were able to eat more than half of the plate. I'm so proud of you."

Richie quickly avoided the man's gaze and looked down at his lap in hopes to hide his frustration; but he realised that he had failed his attempt when he caught Eddie's pleased smirk plastered onto his lips when he looked back up to his face. He pointed at the phone next to Eddie's glass, glaring at him.

"Are you going to tell me now or what?" Eddie nodded with a sigh, swallowing thickly before he grabbed the phone, staring at the black screen for a moment before he turned back to Richie.

"The Losers are at the quarry." He finally said, making the man furrow his eyebrows. Richie thought about something before shaking his head, he then spoke up at last.

"Who died?"

"What? What the fuck are you talking about?" Richie pointed at Eddie's face.

"With the face you were making when you mentioned them, it's only natural for me to assume it's bad news, Eds, sue me. So, who died?" Eddie shook his head as he closed his eyes with a smile.

"Nobody, Richie. No-one died. But someone did come back." He said before he gave the phone back to Richie. The man took it with shaking hands and slowly unlocked the phone like it was a bomb that could go off at any second. And on the unlocked screen there stood one singular message in a private chat room.

"Richie, it's me, Bill. Stan is alive."

Richie was driving to the quarry at such speed that Eddie had to grab onto the seat to steady himself; but he wasn't saying anything. He knew how baffled the man was feeling now and he really didn't want to trigger anything for him.

And soon, they came to a quick stop, the tires of the red vehicle making a loud screeching sound against the dirt road. He slammed the door close after he stepped out and waited for Eddie to get out to lock his car. He walked towards the edge when he did so, headed to where he could see the other Losers stood with one particular curly-head with them. He felt Eddie's presence next to him, that helped him relax just a tad. And as they got closer to the hill, every head turned towards them with Richie's angry voice shouting at them.

"Hey, fuckers!"

The Losers' faces started to light up with happiness as they saw Eddie well and alive, walking next to Richie as he smiled at them, waving enthusiastically. But neither of them dared to move even a muscle because of Richie's unexpected fury towards Stan.

"You fucking asshole!" He swallowed thickly as Stan turned to him with slightly wide eyes but he kept glaring at the curly-haired man as he got closer.

"What the actual fuck is going on?" Stan pressed his lips together as Richie glared at him with tears in his eyes, a small smile forming on his lips from the happiness of seeing his close friend once again.

"What the fuck are you smiling at?!" He shouted at Stan, making his smile vanish instantly. Beverly stepped in and grabbed his hand. It was clear that the woman was about to make an attempt at calming him down; but the man wasn't having it. So, Richie just shook his head at her before breaking his hand free of her grasp but she didn't give up, spoke up without touching the raging man this time.

"Richie sweetie, calm down. He had just woken up and he still-"

"What is up with his clothes? And why the fuck is he soaked?" He completely ignored the woman's reasoning, asking more questions as he pointed at Stan. Beverly sighed before she started to explain everything.

"We all came here because neither of us could reach you and you didn't answer to our messages either. We were worried that you might... Do something stupid so we came here and checked the hotel. The owner told us you were staying there but we couldn't find you in your room. And the lady told us something about a certain 'Eddie' that was staying with you."

Beverly looked up at the man who was already staring back at her with a warm smile and slowly opened his arms as the woman jumped on him, starting to cry with the overwhelming happiness she felt. "We missed you so much..." She whispered between her quiet sobs as she tightened her grip on Eddie. "Eds, we missed you _so, so much_."

"Me too, Bev. I missed you too." He said as he hugged her back as tight as she did, all the other Losers except for Stan and Richie walked up to the hugging two, making it a loving, tight, crying mess of a group hug. The two men just stayed still, staring at each other with neutral faces.

"Then what happened, Bev?" Richie asked with an unexpectedly calm tone this time, Mike decided to resume from where she was left off as he raised his head from where he was hugging Eddie, his one arm still wrapped around his shoulders.

"We started to search around the town for you two. But we figured it would be a lot easier if we just split up so we did that. I went to the club house which was empty; the lovebirds went to the kissing bridge and moved on to the arcade's street. And Bill here went to the quarry and called us a while later, stuttering like crazy."

"The only thing we could understand was a name." Ben continued, patting Eddie's back with a warm smile before he hugged him as well, pulling away to resume the story of the infamous Stanley Uris coming back to life.

"He was chanting Stan's name over and over again. So we all went to the quarry and found these two hugging-" Ben coughed awkwardly as Richie gave him a look as if he was crazy.

"We found them hugging but when one was butt-naked and that embrace was happening in the water from below the waist. So, we didn't know how to react until, _thankfully_ , Billy decided to cover Stan's body with his flannel." Beverly finished the next part, giving Ben a warm smile when the man looked at her with a grateful gaze before pecking the top of her hair.

Richie just rubbed his temples, furrowing his eyebrows. _'First Eds, now Stan... Is this even fucking real? What the hell is going on?'_ He thought, feeling a slight headache that made him sigh but when he opened his eyes and saw Stanley there, standing and _alive_. He was too overwhelmed with emotions.

"So, let me get this straight. We thought he was _dead_!" Richie screamed, his voice cracking with emotions, throwing his arms out. "But this motherfucker was _here_ all along, skinny dipping in the quarry's grey water!" He let out a dry chukle, throwing his arms to the air.

"Who's coming to life next, the fucking clown?"

"Richie!" Someone shouted at him, the man turned around and glared at his friends.

"What? Is there no-one remaining sane in the group besides me? Is that why _only I'm_ freaking out over this?" He swallowed thickly, looking down at his feet before turning back to him.

"How the fuck am I supposed to take this, Stan?"

He said, pointing at the man who was standing near the hill, just a few metres away from him. Stan didn't say anything, only shook his head as he slowly approached Richie. The man's eyes widened and he looked horrified as Stan got closer to him with each step he took, shaking his head at him violently as if that small gesture would be enough to prevent him from approaching.

" _No!_ Stan, whatever you're doing, _stop it!_ Just, stop!"

Eddie quickly broke away from his friends' hug after hearing Richie's tone; he ran and stepped between Stan and his lover, starting to glare at the man. Stan didn't really react again, he just gave him a smile of assurance that he wasn't planning on doing anything to Richie. He just wanted the man to believe he was actually alive. But Eddie refused to budge.

"I promise I'm not after him, Eddie."

He assured verbally this time after his smile and patted his shoulder as he walked past him, stopping right before Richie. The man opened his mouth to presumably yell at Stan again until he hugged his friend tightly after seeing the new tears starting to form in Richie's eyes. Stan patiently waited for Richie to process what was happening, and soon Richie wrap his arms around his arms around him; he tightened his grip on the shaken man.

"I fucking missed you so much, you fucking asshole..." Richie whispered; his muffled sobs filled Stan's ears as Richie tried to pull away, Stan just tightened his arms around the man to prevent him from stepping away.

"Cry it all out, Trashmouth. We both know just how badly you breakdown when you keep everything to yourself for a long time." He whispered to prevent Eddie from hearing him, a pained smile formed on his lips when he felt the man's back start to shake violently. He started stroking his back gently, giving the others a stern look to make them go away.

They obeyed without objecting, only Beverly remained in her place. Stan smiled at his friend; opening one of his arms around Richie to let her in. The woman didn't hesitate to run towards them and wrapped both men in her arms tightly. It wasn't the first time they comforted Richie like this, they knew just what to do.

"Bev..." He hiccupped, feeling her hand soothingly rub his back up and down. "It was only Eddie and now Stanley is alive too." He raised his head from where it was resting on Stan's shoulder, looking down at his two best friends who were holding him tightly yet gently as he cried.

"How the fuck is that even _possible_? I am so fucking scared of waking up at any moment. I'm so scared that this is just a fucking dream. Stan, Bev, I am so fucking scared."

"Eddie texted me you think that way," Beverly spoke up, her hand still rubbing the man's back. "But honey they are here and alive. Both of them are as real as us; you don't have to be afraid."

"What if _we_ aren't real as well? What if I bumped my head or some stupid shit like that and I'm in a coma-Ow! Stan the Man, I already got a man! Keep your hands away from my ass!"

Beverly snorted loudly when she saw Stan's hand lingering near Richie's ass, the man pouting and rubbing the area Stan had just pinched quite mercilessly. "I know I'm irresistible and all but-"

"Did that hurt, Trashmouth?" Richie looked at him with wide eyes, eyebrows furrowing.

"Of course it hurt like a bitch! Why-"

"Then you are not in a coma." Beverly shrugged as she spoke like nothing happened.

"Nor in a dream. Real life hurts." Stan completed Bev's sentence, the woman giving him a smile. Richie narrowed his eyes as eyed the two, glaring at them as he crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head with the ghost of a fond smile on his lips.

"I fucking hate both of you." He stated, glaring at them.

"Stop lying, Trashmouth, you fucking adore us!" She said; making the man groan as Stan nodded his head.

But of course, he started to smile when Beverly placed her arm over his shoulders and yanked him down before ruffling his already-unruly hair. She then let out a loud gasp and stopped all her motions with something dark coloured on the man's neck. She smirked as she made eye-contact with Stan, pointing at his neck as she yanked his collar open, making Richie yelp with surprise and horror.

"Someone sure had fun last night, huh?" Stan asked, smirked at him and winked.

"I fucking hate you two." He snarled, laughing afterwards, covering the marks on his neck again with a slight blush across his cheeks. Beverly gave him a wide grin, making the man groan again.

"Let's head back." Richie said, wanting to get away from his annoying friends as soon as possible, one hand still cupping his ass cheek even when they were with the Losers again. Mike noticed that, giving him a huge, mischievous grin.

"Damn Rich, who banged you in a matter of seconds? We left you there for only five minutes." Richie laughed as his free hand patted Stan's shoulder harshly, making the man frown before swat his hand away.

"Stan the Man here couldn't resist a piece of good ol' Tozier meat." He said as he slapped his own ass as he wiggled his hips, making Eddie glare at the two until Stan turned to him and saw his frown. He gave him a reassuring smile before he shook his head.

"The idiot wouldn't believe I was real so I had to pinch some brains into him." He explained as Bill approached him and gave him a warm smile.

"And you did it from his _ass_?" Eddie asked and yanked the taller man closer to his side as Richie's eyes widened with surprise. He didn't know how to react to that and he just awkwardly let him do what he wanted. The other Losers laughed at the man's possessiveness over Richie while Stan just shrugged, smiling and letting Bill grab a hold of his forearm and help him walk.

"I'm hungry..." Richie whined as he stretched his hands over his shoulders to the air, yawning loudly. He then stuffed his hands into the pockets of the red jacket he was wearing and turned to give the man an assuring smile that was looking at him like he was trying to figure out if he was being serious or not.

"Yes, Eds," he assured, winking at him as he paced up to keep up with the others since the two were walking slower to talk among themselves a little until they arrived to their cars. "I actually am-"

"Richard, what the fuck is that on your back?" The man turned back before he grabbed the hem of the jacket and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Like what you see Eddie Spaghetti? I can-Oh, shit!" He started to run away from the man who suddenly began to charge at him, laughing loudly in the process. He quickly got behind Beverly and Ben as they were the closest to them, pointing at Eddie who was glaring at him as he panted, forcing the couple to come to a stop.

"He wants to kill me."

"Why?" Ben asked, Richie smirked, pointing at the red jacket's back as he turned around, showing the poorly sewn lighter coloured red cloth covering the big patch that was left behind from Its spike impaling Eddie right through his clothes.(Eddie Kaspbrak was here with a downwards arrow pointing at his ass)

"Oh my god!" Beverly started to snort as Ben pressed his lips together, trying his best not to laugh, avoiding Eddie's glare, watching Richie run away as the man finally noticed how close Eddie managed to get to him.

"Come back here, you asshole! I don't need every person in this fucking town to know I'm fucking you!" Eddie screamed at Richie, trying to catch the man. Richie turned back and flipped him off, laughing loudly as he screamed back at the man.

"I don't need to wear this jacket anymore anyway, you dipshit! Everyone now knows who you're fucking thanks to your beautiful voice chords!"

He stopped to catch his breath a bit when he saw how far Eddie was, unaware that the man had started to sprint towards him again. He chuckled confidently after his breathing was steady enough, he turned back to look at Eddie once again suddenly all the air in his lungs got forced out of them as something hard crashed against his chest, sending him falling flat on his back against the ground with a loud thud.

He cursed under his breath as he groaned loudly, he looked up to see what had hit him like a meteor. It was Eddie, looking down at him with droplets of sweat shining on his forehead, panting sharply with a half-smirk. He wheezed, one of his hands dove into his pockets and took out a red inhaler, shaking the container before taking a huff. Well, old habits die hard.

"Thought you could get away from me, Trashmouth? Not a chance." He said as he let out a breathy laugh, leaning in closer him. "I would never let you go."

"Fuck, I forgot how fast you could actually run." He smiled, locking eyes with his lover. "And as much as I'd love for us to stay like this for a while Eds, you have to get up or I gotta have you fuck my brains out right here." That earned him a hard slap and a loud groan.

* * *

"So, what exactly are you guys?" Mike asked as they walked out of the diner, looking at the pair who was holding hands with loving smiles on their faces. (Richie had been forced to tie the red jacket around his waist after Eddie's gentle tackle.)

"We are the same-" Eddie started but Richie cut him off with a sloppy and loud kiss he placed on his wound-free cheek.

"But gayer!" The man rolled his eyes as he sighed loudly, slapping Richie's shoulder.

"We are the same as before but we both know how we feel about each other now and aren't afraid to admit it anymore." He said, earning an enthusiastic and as happy nod from Richie.

"Also I asked him out this morning but he just fucking froze so I still don't know his answer." The Losers snorted as they shook their heads at the incredibly stupid but fitting pair.

"Did I?" Eddie looked at him with disbelief.

"Dude, I literally had to flick your forehead seven times before you got out of your trance. Then you proceeded to suck-"

"Did you just call your lover 'dude'?" Stan questioned to prevent Eddie from giving too much information by accident, making the others laugh. Eddie shrugged as Richie put an arm around his shoulders before tapping his nose with his index finger.

Stan watched them interact with one another with a fake-displeased, wrinkly face before rolling his eyes with a soft sigh and turned his head around; flinching when he saw the back of Bill's head so close to his face. The man smiled at him once he turned around and gave Stan a hand to hold on to.

"I-Is there anywhere you wuh-would like to go, Stan? Maybe you could refresh your memories l-luh-like we did." The man thought for a moment before smiled and nodded at his suggestion.

"Let's go to the clubhouse. I want to know how much you two animals destroyed Ben's first ever work." Stan said, raising his eyebrows at Richie and Eddie. Richie started to ramble as he condemned Stan for accusing him of being an animal with a posh British accent before Eddie could shush him. The Losers laughed once again before getting into their cars to drive there.

"Do you remember uh-anything at all?" Bill asked to break the silence, making the curly-haired man turn towards him with a neutral face, he started to think as he looked down at the pinkish golden coloured T shaped scars on his wrists.

"A turtle..." He said, his eyebrows knitted together in a confused manner, looking back up at the man. "I remember seeing a turtle, Bill. Before that, I was lying in the bathtub and then I _stopped functioning_..?" He almost asked himself, not even sure how he was going to explain his experience.

"I felt alive but I somehow didn't need to breathe. I didn't need to see. But after some time, I'm not sure for how long, I opened my eyes again. I was underwater and I didn't struggle with breathing at all. It felt like I was floating in space with a giant turtle right next to me."

"Maybe it was the q-quarry?" Bill questioned, glancing at Stan before he turned back to the road once again. The man nodded, keeping his eyes fixated on Bill's ginger/brown hair. It looked really soft; he wanted to touch it.

"It was." He simply said, looking away from him after a while. "I even heard some laughter and splashing once. But I couldn't open my mouth and even if I did, nothing came out."

"Then how did you fuh-float up to the surface or even speak when I found yuh-you?"

"The turtle said it was my time to go back on one condition." He simply said, swallowing thickly. Bill looked at him for a moment witha concerned look on his face.

"Y-You... You didn't suh-sell your soul, d-duh-did you?" Stan chuckled and Bill admired the man's effortless beauty in silence. They were the first one to arrive to the opening of the woods, so he stopped the car, finally being able to give his full attention to Stan now.

"No, don't worry. I didn't sell it anything." Stan assured him, giving his hands a quick, gentle squeeze before letting go of him.

"It just made me promise something. The same promise I made when I..." He took a shaky breath and Bill nodded slowly to inform him he didn't need to clear anything up. _They understood each other well enough_.

As the other cars started to park beside Bill's car, he smiled at Stan before he got out of the vehicle. When everyone was out, they gave each other a nod; all smiling at the nostalgia they felt. Bill helped Stan walk into the woods since he got a little nauseous every now and then, making the curly-haired man smile at him with grateful eyes.

They all walked to the clubhouse in synch, constantly joking and pushing each other around. Richie smirked at Ben when they were getting close to the entrance, nudging the man with his elbow and winked at him when he stopped, keeping on walking himself.

"Hey, Haystack, you won't fall down into the clubhouse just to inform us you have found it just like last time, right? You can just tell us you did without making yourself a-"

He cursed out loud as his next step found nothing to step on and support his weight, his eyes widened as he fell down into the hole that the clubhouse's door once had been covering. The Losers quickly gathered around it and looked down to make sure Richie was okay, then all of them broke into a loud laughter fit.

He lifted up himself from where he was sitting on the ground, rubbing his ass as he looked up at them with a frown. "Yeah, laugh all you want. That shit hurt, you absolute fuckers!" He then turned to Eddie with a fake hurt expression.

"And Eddie Spaghetti, how could you laugh at your boyfriend dearest's pain?" Eddie gave him a bored look. "Oh shit, I fucking forgot that I forgot to accept it."

"Or you were confessing your ever-lasting love to me and accepted it from your mind and kind of hoped that we had telepathic communication abilities or some shit. Now, are you actually going to accept it or should I try and seduce a sexy librarian here instead?"

He said, nudging Mike's side as he batted his eyelashes at him. Stan rolled his eyes before he looked down at Richie then back up at Eddie who was standing next to Mike.

"You guys have not changed one bit." He groaned; tapped Bill's side and made him look towards him as his heart started to race inside his ribcage.

Mike smiled at the pair with a knowing glint in his eyes and threw an arm over Eddie's shoulder before whispering something in his ear that made the man open his eyes widely with a small gasp as he took his phone out. He unlocked it and showed Eddie something, making him smile brightly before he hugged him and congratulated his friend.

"Hey!" Richie shouted at the two friends and walked towards the stairs to climb to the top but his attempt got stopped by someone that had started to climb down. He grinned, and slapped Stan's ass as Eddie turned his head to look back down at them, making the curly-man yelp with surprise and nearly sent him falling down the rest of the steps.

"Nice view, Uris."

Stan groaned, slapping Richie's hand which was still too close to his hips away and waited for Bill to climb down, smiling at him when he grabbed him by his waist, supporting and leading him to the bed that the Losers had put there a while ago.

And soon, they were all down in the clubhouse, settling down to where they chose to sit on. Some sitting on the dirt ground while the others wanted a layer between them and the floor. Ben looked around once again, smiling as he shook his head fondly at the memories that rushed into his mind. Beverly nudged his side before giving her boyfriend a wink.

"Not bad for the first time, eh, New Kid?" Ben smiled as he sat down before looking up at her to watch Bev sit down beside him. She smiled back before intertwining their hands and rested her head on his shoulder. His smile got brighter as she placed a soft kiss onto his hand, his other hand reached over to stroke her cheek.

"Our precious Mikey here has got some wonderful news to announce, Losers!" Eddie informed the others once he was down as well and walked over to Richie, grabbing his hands and kissing his knuckles before he asked if he was actually okay or not. Mike came down after him, grinning widely as he stepped closer to the circle, taking a seat between Stan and Beverly.

"Well?" Beverly said as she sat up straight and this time she leaned back against Mike's shoulder instead, nudging the man with a huge grin. The man's grin widened after the mischievous look she had given him, shaking his head fondly before he finally spoke up.

"I am currently in a relationship." Beverly smiled widely and hugged her friend tightly as she congratulated him.

"For how long?" Stan asked with a warm smile to let the man know he was approving it as well. Mike smiled back as he thought about his girlfriend, his eyes started to shine with love he had for her.

"I met her at a library-café two days after I moved to Florida. She's absolutely wonderful and very smart. We have great conversations an-"

A loud snoring made him stop his sentence to look around to find the source of it and stopped at Richie who was pretending to be asleep, again, this time on Eddie's shoulder. The man rolled his eyes before he gave an apologetic look to Mike who was still smiling fondly at the pair before he slapped Richie's face, making him cry out with pain, flinching away from Eddie's shoulder because of the shock of it.

"Hit him one more time for me too, Eddie." Stan said without looking up from his lap where he was playing with his fingers, smirking and finally raising his head again when he heard another slap.

"Hey! We will play only if you got money on you, Stan the Man! I'm not some cheap bitch." He whined before rubbing his face underneath his glasses. Beverly laughed loudly at his words, shaking her head at the man.

"Oh, Richie, we all know you'd the cheapest bitch out of all of us, honey." Beverly cooed, making Richie groan at the woman before grabbing one of Stan's shower caps that was randomly lying on the floor and threw it at her. Of course it didn't travel far and fell to the ground in the middle of the circle two seconds after Richie threw it.

"Mike, mah man," Richie said as he raised his surprisingly very disappointed gaze from the pink shower cap on the ground, a huge grin started to form on his face after their gazes met and gave him a thumbs up. "I'm so fucking proud of you. You really deserve the world, you gorgeous giant."

"Thanks Rich." He looked around, eyeing everyone. "So, I'm guessing pretty much everyone is in a relationship here, right?" His question made Beverly think for a while before she turned to Stan, making him look back at her with his one eyebrow raised with curiosity.

"What about your wife, Stan?" She asked and Bill secretly gave his friend a grateful smile, which, she returned with a quick nod before she leaned over and kissed Ben's cheek. Stan looked confused for a moment then he remembered their peaceful divorce.

"We actually got a divorce about a month ago before Mike called me to go back to Derry. It was a planned thing that we were both agreeing on but even after the divorce, we didn't move away from each other."

"Why?" Bill asked, his tone sounding more curious than he was planning. Stan turned to him and gave him a soft smile.

"Because she was my best friend before becoming my wife. And our marriage life wasn't that much different from the life what we were living before. The only differences were the small kisses shared and staying in the same house, sleeping in the same bed. So it wasn't a difficult one."

"But she didn't correct me when I asked... Asked about you."

Beverly said quietly; not sure if that was a sensitive topic for Stan. And it was. He pressed his knees against his chest as he caressed the faintly golden glowing cut scars on his wrists. Bill saw his discomfort and moved closer to him on the mattress, wrapped an arm around his shoulders, his hand starting to caress his upper arm to calm the man down. Stan looked up at him with a weak smile before he grabbed Bill's other hand, starting to play with his fingers quietly on his lap.

"Because our divorce wasn't announced yet. We even still wore our rings and stuff." He answered Bev's question, looking up at her with a smile assuring he was okay now. "We were aware that it would come eventually and we didn't want to be tied up to each other knowing we could meet someone any day and our marriage would just get in the way of our 'romantic' happiness."

Bill nodded, looking at Eddie who was in the process of slapping Richie's arm for probably an inappropriate joke before he broke into a smile and pushed the man's hair back, kissing his hair line gently. "I think you're absolutely right."

"You are married?" Bill finally looked away from the couple after the question and back at Stan, shaking his head with a warm smile.

"I _was_ married. But it didn't work out since I couldn't make her happy and she couldn't make me happy. We divorced before I left for Derry."

"May I ask why?"

"We couldn't communicate with each other without misunderstanding our words or getting mad one way or another, and I knew that situation was going to tear me apart. So, we got a divorce, I moved out of the house and got into the apartment I could afford at that time."

"Didn't you say you divorced her before you got here?" Eddie asked, Richie's arm around his shoulders as he was comfortably leaning against his side, his one hand holding Richie's face back from pressing his lips on his cheek with his palm blocking the kiss. Richie looked up at Bill and nodded.

"Yeah dude, how does that even work? So, you just kinda... You found an apartment and moved in? It must've taken a few hours and that's impossible."

Bill nodded; a small smile on his lips that Stan secretly admired with a fond look from below. What he didn't know was that Richie was observing the two with a slight frown on his face.

"I actually already had the spare apartment for my writing and stuff like that. It was like a literal home-office. And when we both wanted some time alone, I would go there and stay for as long as I needed to. So, it really was the best fucking decision I've ever made in a while."

Stan realised Bill was going to look down at him so he quickly ripped his eyes off of him, immediately locking eyes with a serious-looking Richie. His eyes widened as he realised Richie knew what was happening. _'Don't you dare ,Trashmouth. Or I'll rip your dick off so you can't ever fuck Eddie again.'_ Stan mouthed at him as Bill's stare darted between the two with a confused expression on. Richie just gave him a smirk.

"Who told you I was the one doing the fucking, Stan the Man?" Richie asked, making Eddie flinch from beside him. "Eds here is the-"

"Beep beep Richie." The Losers all said in synch, making him purse his lips and nod slowly.

"I was just clearing something up, fuck you all." He grumbled, hiding his nose in Eddie's neck. The man smiled while patting his shoulder, kissing the side of his hair.

"Let's head back. Some of us are a little tired." Mike announced as he got up, helping Ben stand up after him. Richie got up as well, helping Bev and Eddie up, waiting for any movements from Stan and Bill. They finally got up after a moment of staring-contest, climbing up the stairs of the Club House one by one. They all then started to walk back to where they had parked their cars.

"Richie, I'll come with you. I have something I'd like to talk about."

Bill and Eddie looked back and forth between the two men and gave up on asking any questions when Richie nodded his head before unlocking his car and holding the door to his car open for Stan. He smiled at Richie, got in and closedhis door as Richie climbed inside after giving Eddie a small wave.

"What do you think they'll talk about?" Eddie asked, not taking his eyes off of the red car that was already driving away. Bill furrowed his eyebrows as his gaze followed the car as well; he opened his mouth to reply but Beverly spoke up first.

"There's no way they are talking about anything serious." She chuckled despite the seriousness in her eyes, looking at the two men that stood awkwardly before her.

"Richie's probably cracking up a stupid joke after another right now. He's very lucky if Stan doesn't murder him until they get back to the hotel."

"This can sound a bit absurd coming from a forty years old man but," Stan said, turning to face Richie. "How did you understand your feelings? Towards Eddie, I mean."

Richie thought for a moment, turning to face Stan. And the man's eyes widened at the raw emotions he saw on his friend's face since he had never seen Richie look so open and accepting about his feelings. He was carrying the warmest, most gentle smile he had never seen on the man's face before.

"Even though when I got back with Eddie for the first time after twenty seven years, I instantly knew something was _very_ different about him than any of you Losers." He smiled, nodding at Richie, grateful that he wasn't bringing up his absence.

"I wanted to wind him up and make him angry just so he would only give his attention to _me_. And when he was scared, I wanted nothing but to grab him and get out of the house and make him run away with me. I wanted him to forget about his wife completely and-"

"He has a _wife_? Richard!" Richie raised his one hand to the air defensively as he raised his eyebrows.

"Dude, he kissed me first and told me he didn't love her even one second!" Stan's eyes widened.

"I would've never thought that he would be able to admit his feelings to you." Richie gave him a small smile.

"He's braver than any of you think," he said, carefully taking a turn. "He saved me from the fucking deadlights by throwing a spear inside the bitch's throat-Stan, are you sure about this?"

He suddenly asked as he turned to familiar a street, soon stopping the car. Stan nodded, swallowing thickly before getting out of Richie's car. He slowly stepped towards Stan's side, putting a hand on his shoulder, giving him a squeeze of assurance that he was there with him. Stan turned to him, looking up at him with wide eyes.

"It... It's gone... Richie, the house is gone!" Richie just smiled down at him, nodding enthusiastically, watching Stan turn back to look at the self-demolished house. But then, he started to shake violently, grabbing onto the sleeve of Richie's jacket, taking a step backwards.

"R... Richie?" Stan turned to the man who was already looking at him. He raised his hand to point at something towards the house, his fingers trembling with fear.

"What the fuck is that?" Richie looked towards there but he could see nothing. Then he realised Stan was too traumatised to separate what was real and what was not. Just like how he was.

He quickly turned the man around and made him sit back inside, climbing in himself after Stan and sped away from the house. He didn't try and waste his breath by trying to get the man to speak with him because he knew he wouldn't listen to anything he could possibly say right now.

He quickly parked the car, going towards Stan's side and helping him up. They quickly stepped towards the hotel while leaning against one another. And the moment the doors opened, Stan pushed Richie back, running up the stairs to find an empty room.

"Damn, I knew you'd drive Stan mad but dude-" Beverly joked, stopping when he saw Richie's expression.

"Not now, Bev."

"What happened?" Richie sighed as he went towards the bar section of the lobby and grabbed a random bottle of liquor, drinking straight out of it without bothering to serve himself a glass. Mike was already at the bar when Richie barged in and just studied the man with a worried gaze. Eddie came in after Richie with Bill following him and he quickly walked over to the man and wrapped his arms around his shoulders.

"He wanted to go to the Neibolt house. And he knew neither of you would take him there so he just asked me. At first he was okay and very pleased by the new look of the house but then he started to shake and mutter things under his breath. That's when I understood something was wrong so I took him back into the car and drove here. You know the rest." He explained quickly as he put one hand over Eddie's arms, kissing his temple with a sigh.

Mike sighed as well before he turned to look over at Ben and Beverly who had just came in, making eye-contact with the woman and smiling at Ben who just nodded, all of them then turned to Bill.

"You should go and check up on him Bill," The man looked at Mike, a ghost of a smile forming on his lips.

"We don't know what he might be up to now. He is traumatised." Ben added.

"Why should _I_ go?" Bill asked, trying his best to sound as normal as possible when all he wanted to do was to run upstairs and hold the man close, and to never let him go. Richie rolled his eyes since he saw right through his poor acting. Since _he had_ done the same himself for long years.

"You'll fucking go because you are the person he needs now." He spat with a glare as he received a gentle shoulder massage from Eddie, the Losers backed him up with continuous sets of 'yeahs' and 'that's trues', all giving Bill a look of irritation.

"He actually needs all of us right now." Beverly finally rolled her eyes at his half-assed excuse and walked over to him, grabbing the man by his shoulders, she pulled him up and pushed him towards the bar's entrance.

"Fucking move already." Bill looked down at her before giving her a grateful smile, his eyes then scanning the Losers.

"He might be needing all of us but it's _different_ with _you_ , Big Bill." Mike said, giving Richie a wink, a warm smile tugged on his lips when he turned back to the man. "It has _always_ been different."

And with his newly-achieved courage, Bill raced up the stairs, starting to yank random doors open until he found the one that had Stan in it, seeing him curled up on the bed. His shoulders were shaking violently before he shot up from where he was lying, trying to wipe his tears away when he saw Bill close and lock the door behind him, walking towards him with a gentle smile.

He sat down beside him with no words coming out of his mouth; he just opened his arms out for Stan. The man didn't hesitate to crash into Bill and wrap him up in a hug so tight that the man had to struggle to breathe for the first few seconds of their embrace. But the surprise of Stan's tight hug resolved in an instant and Bill's arms hugged the slightly trembling man, his one hand grabbing the back of his head, his fingers tangling in his messy curls as the other wrapped around his waist.

Stan didn't try to move away from Bill at all. He had never tried to do that before and it always made Bill feel special. The way Stan would gladly accept the small gestures of affection from Bill; sometimes even seek him out but slap away everyone else. Bill's heart started to feel like it might pound right out of his chest at any minute now as he stared down at the man clinging to him like his life depended on their embrace.

"You're late." Stan finally spoke up and moved upwards to find a better position, making himself comfortable before he hugged the man's torso again, resting his head against Bill's chest.

"Oh, they were right. You _were_ waiting for me." Bill teased, Stan only tightening his grip.

"You wish." He said as he pressed his ear against Bill's chest, right over his heart, his eyes widened at the fast heartbeats he heard. He enjoyed the rhythm for a bit before he looked up at Bill.

"Why does it beat like that?" He questioned, before unwrapping one of his arms from Bill's waist and placed it on the man's heart, clarifying his question to Bill in case he didn't understand what he was asking.

He couldn't form words, feeling like he might start to stutter again if he did. And the man's expectant eyes that stared right at him weren't helpful at all. He swallowed thickly before he grabbed Stan's hand on his chest and gave him an apologetic smile before he leaned in to press his lips so softly against Stan's that he wouldn't believe Bill was kissing him if he didn't see that happening.

After just a couple of seconds, Bill pulled away, Stan guessed he would start panicking and continuously apologise for the kiss. But that didn't happen, and in fact, he looked quite confident in a deep contrast with the shy kiss he had just given to the man, his eyes never leaving Stan's gaze.

"T-t-this is wuh-why." He stuttered, pressing their foreheads together, closing his eyes. "Thu-this is wuh-why it's b-buh-beating l-like that. Buh-because you muh-make me h-happy, Stuh-Stanny." The man rolled his eyes at that.

"Then kiss me like you mean it."

"Wuh-what?" Stan rolled his eyes again as he stood up straight, glaring at Bill.

"Kiss me like you actually want me. I almost couldn't even feel your-"

His sentence got cut off by Bill's lips now forcefully attacking his, making the man widen his eyes. Bill got even bolder from Stan's smug expression dissolve into pure surprise, moved his hands to his waist and started to crawl towards him. Stan saw what he was doing and finally started to kiss him back, grabbing onto Bill's collar to pull him even closer.

Bill placed his one knee between Stan's thighs to balance himself, leaning in even closer. The man opened his eyes to look down in panic, misunderstood what Bill was trying to do, he started to get nervous as he was not feeling ready for this at all. Bill noticed how stiff the man had become under him and started to stroke his cheek to inform he wasn't planning on making any further moves.

"I'm not going to do anything, Stanny." He whispered after pulling away a little, smiling down at him. His hands kept caressing his cheeks, before one let go to brush his curls out of his eyes. "I know what you're comfortable with. And I know you're not ready."

"I love you." Stan breathed and hugged Bill again, pulling him close until their bodies were completely pressed up against one another. Bill smiled into his neck as his hands possessively wrapped around Stan's waist.

"I love you too, Bird Boy." He smiled when he felt Stan chuckle silently. They stayed like that for a bit until they pulled away. Bill grabbed his wrists and kissed the pinkish golden coloured cuts on his wrist, seeing the very scar from their Blood Oath still occupying his palm. He traced his index finger over them, never breaking eye-contact with him.

"W-We cuh-could have huh-helped." Stan shook his head, tears picking at his eyes.

"No you couldn't." Bill tried again.

"I-I-I could've huh-helped, Stuh-Stan. Wuh-Why..?"

His voice broke into a whisper as he asked the man his reason why, starting to cry silently. Stan didn't know what to do as Bill grabbed his collars tightly, his warm tears soaking the front of his shirt.

"I-I tuh-tried so huh-hard not to cry buh-but... It's t-too h-huh-hard not to. Wuh-When I luh-learned that you-"

"Shh," Stan shushed the man, wrapping his arms around his back, pulling him closer. "No one could have helped me, Bill. I was absolutely horrified by even the _idea_ of returning back here. I didn't want it because I knew if I came..." He paused and cupped the sides of Bill's head from just below his ears, making the man look up at him.

"I knew if I came, I would have gotten us all killed. But even when I was doing what I did, I promised you, Billy. The same promise I made to the turtle."

"Fuh-For what?" He asked, his voice shaky. Stan smiled, softly pecking his lips that were red and swollen from crying too much.

"I promised to turn back to you one day. I promised that I would prevent any of you from dying because of _me_. And most importantly," he said, tapping onto the scar on his palm with a smile. " _I promised a happy future for you._ "

**(That Night at the Hotel Bar: Losers Celebrating Before Returning to Their Homes)**

"Chug! Chug! Chug!" Richie chanted as Beverly and Bill laughed, both taking blowjob shots before the man did it himself. They dropped the glasses on the table, laughing loudly when they saw Stan's clear discomfort.

"What's the matter, Bird Boy?" Richie nudged the uncomfortable-looking man with his elbow, wiggling his eyebrows as he gave him the same type of glass the three had used. "You want to give it a go too?"

Stan gave him a look before he rolled his eyes, a smirk spread across his lips as he took the drink, taking the shot. Richie looked baffled before he laughed, throwing his arms in the air with enthusiasm.

"Hey Mikey, hey Ben," Eddie greeted the rather quiet men that were sitting and drinking beer as they calmly talked on their own, making both of their heads turn to his direction. "I have a favour to ask of you two."

"Sure." Ben said as Mike smiled at him as he nodded, patting the empty seat beside him.

"What is it?" Eddie didn't answer Mike's question, just took the seat he was offered. He then took a deep breath, rubbed his palms against his jeans' thighs to wipe the sweat away before his hand dove into his jacket's pocket and took a small, black box out of it. He slowly opened it as he watched the four have fun amongst themselves, returning to the two men with the small gasps he heard.

"This is absolutely beautiful, Eds." Mike said with a smile as Ben agreed by nodding, carrying a huge grin on his face before he spoke up. "Richie will love it."

"Thank you." He said, quickly closed the box and put it back into his pocket and turned his head to the side when he heard Richie's rather loud laughter, smiling fondly at the man.

"You really love him, don't you?" Ben asked as he studied Eddie's warm, genuine expression, making him turn to face the man. "That's good, because that man*pointing at Richie* cared about you and loved you so much. He even cried on my shoulder at the club house because he was terrified of what you'd say if you ever found out about his feelings."

"He told you?" Ben just nodded with a sad smile, remembering the devastated state of the fourteen years old Richie, how much he trmbled as he cried on him.

"I was like a friend-therapist for him. Richie knew I would never tell anyone the things he had on mind so he would tell me everything that troubled him." Ben pointed at Eddie with a weak smile. "All the things he couldn't say to you. All the things that troubled him deeply. I can't even remember the number of times he asked me if I thought you liked him or not."

"I really do love the idiot," Eddie nodded, sighing deeply. "That's why I want to ask you two something. I really need to find a place I can propose to him without being interrupted or triggering something for him. I wanted to ask if you knew a place I could use for tonight."

"When will you propose?" Mike asked, Ben already starting to think about a place for his friend.

"I'm thinking tonight. Maybe... 2 am?"

"Isn't that a bit too late?" Ben asked with furrowed eyebrows, Mike nodded along. Eddie shrugged, pointing at the rest of the Losers.

"I don't want anyone questioning our absence and ruin the moment by calling us." Ben nodded as Mike smiled brightly.

"I think I might know one place where you can propose safely."

"And that place is?" His smile grew, Ben looking at him in as much curiosity as Eddie. "The library I used to work at. You can use the upstairs for a while."

"My god, Mike!" Eddie smiled, hugging the man tightly.

"It's a good idea, Mike." Ben said with a smile, relieved with how happy Eddie had become.

"Can I really use it?"

"I could rent you the place for tonight." Mike said with a smile, Ben shaking his head fondly.

"For how much?" Eddie asked, already starting to take his wallet out. But Mike stopped the man and shook his head before he turned to Richie who was trying to talk Bill into doing a body shot from Stan.

"For a happy Richie." Ben nodded as he turned back to Eddie from chuckling at Richie.

"And I'll be happy to arrange the flowers and candles you might need. You must want it to be special, yeah?" Eddie smiled widely, nodding as he grabbed the both men by their necks, and hugged them as he nodded enthusiastically.

"Thank you two so much. I love you guys." Ben and Mike looked at each other before they turned to smile at Eddie.

"We love you too."

The three got out of the hotel before any of the remaining four could notice their absence, Ben leaving Mike and Eddie to grab a few things he knew he would need when he would be preparing the environment. The two stepped towards Mike's car as Eddie grinned with happiness.

"The car looks good." Mike nodded as they got in, patting the wheel.

"The other was too old now and I've always wanted this baby."

"Good for you, Mikey." Eddie smiled widely, the two friends talked as they drove to their destination. They got inside after parking the car, looking around to see if they had to tidy up the place or not. It was clean.

"This is where you used to live, right?" Eddie asked, looking around the empty space.

"Yeah," Mike answered, grabbing the table as he pointed at the chairs. "Let's take these here. I think you might need a table." Eddie nodded and grabbed two, starting to carry them to the middle of the room.

"Do you think I'm going too fast?" He asked as Mike walked off towards a door and came back with a clean-looking white sheet, starting to cover the wooden table with it.

"What do you mean?" He turned to Eddie, seeing the man looking stressed.

"I mean, do you think I'm moving too fast for Richie? I told you guys how he froze up when I only asked him to date me. I don't want to freak him out and make him have an anxiety attack or something by asking him to marry me without even hearing if he wanted me in his life in a romantic way."

"Eddie," Mike said sternly, stepping close and putting an assuring hand on his shoulder. "You love him and he loves you. You two have been waiting for far too long. You're not going fast man, you have to believe that. Richie will love this and everything will go as planned. Don't worry."

"With the environment I will be preparing for you," Ben chimed in, grinning as he held a plastic bag full of supplies. "He won't even think about refusing your proposal. Let's begin."

* * *

"Eddie! Where are you? I was worried shitless, you fucking asshole!" Eddie smiled at the man's hoarse voice, shaking his head as he nervously fiddled with the ring box.

"I'm at the town library. Upstairs in the living section."

"And _why the fuck_ would you be there?" He heard Richie ask before some shuffling, he assumed that Richie was moving.

"Mike said he found something of ours when he was cleaning up and told me to get it before we left the town. I came here to take it but it's too heavy. We will have to carry it together."

"For fuck's sake, Spaghetti, really?" Richie groaned, making Eddie chuckle.

"Get your ass in here and help your boyfriend, Trashmouth."

"You're lucky you have a big dick or-"

Eddie hung up with a huge grin on his face before he turned around and nodded at the two men behind him with great enthusiasm that had been listening to the conversation with anxiety. They hugged Eddie with their shares of grins on their faces before they patted the man's back and fled the building to avoid getting caught by Richie.

"Eds? Eddie?" The man heard a familiar voice call for him, he took deep breaths to calm himself down before he called back.

"I said upstairs, you fucking idiot! Come up!" He heard muffled groans as he sat down on the seat that was facing the door, smiling as he waited for Richie to enter the room.

"Eds, if this is not worth getting my tired ass out of the bed, I swear I'll murder-"

The man suddenly cut himself off, his eyes widening with the room he was not expecting to see in this state. He scanned the whole place, and his eyes started to tear up when he saw Eddie sitting at the table with a wide, gentle smile.

"Welcome, Rich."

He gestured for him to enter; the man did so hesitantly, sitting down across him. He wanted to ask what was going on but he was too shocked to even form a singular word. Eddie saw that and reached to hold his hand over the table, starting to gently caress his knuckles.

"I know you don't like this town-"

"I _hate_ it." Eddie gave him a stern look, preventing Richie from saying more.

"I know you hate this town so I wanted to do something special to try and make you forget all the years you've been suffering because of it."

The man opened the tray's lid to reveal a cake. Richie loved chocolate cakes. Eddie saw his wide smile and immediately cut him a slice. The man happily took the plate and started to eat it. Eddie just watched him eat, smiling at him. He was really glad that the man was slowly going back to eating normally again.

"So, is this going to be just me eating a cake and you watching me do it? Is that a new fetish-"

"Beep beep." Richie nodded and took a piece of the slice with his fork, feeding it to Eddie. The man smiled, taking the cake happily, slowly chewing the chocolaty dream.

" _Wow_ , it's delicious." Eddie mumbled with surprise. "I wasn't expecting this from Derry."

Richie smiled, nodding eagerly as he finished the cake. Eddie patiently waited for him to finish his food, looking over at the man before him, admired him in silence before he took out his phone.

"Who sent you a text at this hour?" Richie asked, oblivious to what Eddie was actually doing. Eddie shrugged before looking back at him after a moment and pressed the play button on his phone, the speaker starting to let out a quiet song. Taking his hands, he smiled widely as the melody started to fill the room, wrapping the both men up with a feeling of happiness.

"Richie, I love you more than anything in the world. But you were right, when we were in high school, I was absolutely scared shitless of how I felt towards you. That's why I so desperately tried to keep looking at you as a friend. I tried my fucking best to keep you as just a friend out of pure fear for my life. I was afraid because of what Bowers and his bitches used to call and do to us." He let out a shaky breath, a pained smile formed on his lips as he looked at Richie.

"And that fucking clown mocking me with that pyramid of balloons... I fucking feared for _my life_ Rich, because _It_ knew and of course, he used it against me. So, I did what I do the best and chickened out." Richie furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth to protest but Eddie cut the man off with a simple gesture. He intertwined their fingers and lifted his hand, turned them around and placed a tender kiss on the back of Richie's hand. The man blushed, biting the insides of his cheeks while Eddie just smiled at him with a fond expression.

"I tried to ignore the feelings I had for you and just kind of hoped they would go away. And us moving away helped a lot since we all forgot about each other. So, I kept my pathetic little act going and I tried to turn myself straight by marrying the literal fucking replica of my mother and lived through that goddamn abusive relationship's 'romantic' version all over again." The man's face grimaced as he referred his marriage as 'romantic', making Richie chuckle dryly at it.

"I looked at you as a friend until I realised I was fucking in love with you all along, you asshole. I'm sorry for not acknowledging it sooner but finally getting them out of my heart is still better than never doing it at all, right?" Eddie let out an awkward laugh; the emotions felt too intense to fit in his lungs now. He was filled with love towards the comedian sitting opposite of him with a surprised but warm smile on his face. It was clear he wasn't expecting a speech like this when he came here.

"You drive me absolutely crazy every single goddamn day, Tozier. And I love it even when I hate it. You make me love you more and more every day and I suspect that'll be the case for the rest of our lives. But of course, that's only if you let us tie them together."

"What?" The man's mouth fell open, blinking his eyes a few times. Did he hear Eddie wrong? Eddie just smiled at him, patted his hands before he let go of them and got up and walked over to Richie, standing right before him. He smiled widely, taking his hands once again.

"Eddie?" Richie said with worry seething from his voice after a while of the man not saying anything, just staring down at him with a fond gaze.

"Are you okay?" Eddie nodded, smiling at him.

"Never better."

"Then what are you do-" He stopped his sentence when he saw Eddie release one of his hands to dig around his jacket's pocket before dropping down to one knee and pulled out a black ring box, smiling up at him. Richie felt his heart leap up to his throat as Eddie opened the box, after letting go of his second hand as well, revealing a white gold ring with two thin black stripes decorating it. It was quite simple yet beautiful. Richie couldn't stop his tears from falling.

"I wanted to propose to you to give this town the third hit since you made your own and _our_ first move by carving our initials to the bridge. This fucking town doesn't deserve a happy gay marriage but we both sure do, Trashmouth. And I want you to wind me up every day because I fucking love you. So, let's get married."

When Richie was expected to give an answer, he couldn't even breathe. He was trying so hard to hold his tears back as long as possible, and that resulted in him to give out silent sobs. But when he realised he wasn't going to hold them back forever, he just let them run down his cheeks, taking his glasses off to wipe them away.

"I..." He choked out, a loud sob escaping his lips immediately afterwards. "Of course I fucking will!" Richie finally spoke up normally, reached for him and pressed their foreheads together, and looking down at the ring that shone bright in the black box.

"Holy fucking shit, Eds," Richie muttered under his breath, a hiccup filled Eddie's ears. "Give me that."

"Eager, are we?" He commented as he chuckled fondly, meeting with Richie's frown.

"We waited for far too long, Eddie. Of course I'll be fucking eager." The man shook his head fondly, kissing his lips sweetly before pulling back.

Eddie took the ring out and slid it on his finger before Richie jumped on him, sending the two falling onto the ground. They smiling widely at one another, studying their faces with fond expressions for a while. The man then grabbed Richie's head from the back of it and pulled him in for a deep, long kiss, smiling widely when he felt the coldness of the ring on Richie's finger brush against his cheek.

"I love you." Richie breathed when they pulled away, Eddie pecking him again.

"My happiness is you, Richard Tozier," Eddie said, pressing their foreheads together. "You are my strength and my whole fucking world. I'll love you until my very last breath."

"Careful what you wish for, Eds." Richie said as he inspected his ring, looking up at him with a sad expression. "You almost _literally_ did that." Eddie sighed, shaking his head.

"Yes, Rich. _Almost_. I almost did it. But I would gladly do that again. Because you're worth it."

"Hey, Eddie?" The man hummed, caressing Richie's forearm with a smile. "What was our second hit? You said our marriage would be the third."

"Eds! How the fuck didn't I notice this before?" Richie asked with surprise, his wide eyes completely fixated on the carving before him. Eddie shrugged when the man looked up at him, leaning over to the fence.

"I used to despise this bridge," Richie said as he took a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket, taking one and lighting it. Eddie watched while the man took his first drag and exhale the smoke from his nostrils.

"But now?" Eddie questioned and making Richie smile at him, holding the cigarette away from his fiancé. It felt very good to finally being able to Eddie as his _fiancé_.

"Well, it's not that bad to be around now that I have my fiancé with me." The man smiled fondly and wrapped an arm around Richie's waist to pull him closer and hugged his side, pushing Richie's head down onto his shoulder. The man wasn't complaining as he snuggled up to him even more, smiling warmly before he looked down at his cigarette and put it out on the wooden fence.

"You were pretty affectionate today and now you're willingly holding me? It must be Christmas." Eddie snorted at that.

"You don't even like Christmas, Rich." He tightened his grip on Richie, stroking his side.

"Maybe I will." He mumbled, making Eddie turn to look at him with a puzzled expression.

"What?"

"Christmases," he cleared himself up, looking up at the sky. "I'm sure I'll love them from now on." He got even closer to Eddie, smiling as he closed his eyes with great comfort.

"I want to stay like this forever. Can we?"

"Of course, Rich, I like hugging you. Besides, as I told you before; _you love to be held_ ," Eddie smiled down at the man, resting his cheek on his head. "And you need to be held because you think no-one will want to stick with you unless you make them remember you somehow. You don't need to try that hard, Rich. Just be yourself, baby."

Richie didn't say anything. He didn't feel the need to. Because he knew his fiancé understood him well enough. He just hugged Eddie tighter, feeling ever safer as he felt the man's arms tighten around him as well. He smiled despite the silent tears that constantly streamed down his face, crying unnoticed until one tear slipped down his chin and onto Eddie's shirt.

"What's wrong?" He asked, pecking the top of his head as he caressed his arms. Richie looked up at him from where he was leaning against; more tears started to fall down his cheeks when he saw Eddie's pure affection towards him, let the man wipe them away as he smiled at Richie.

"You make me too happy... Kaspbrak?" He said his name like a question, not sure what to call him now. Eddie kissed Richie without a rush, just savouring their moment together. Then he entwined their hands, pulling him towards the car.

"We both still need to get a bit of sleep. We are leaving tomorrow." They stopped in front of the car, Eddie winked at him before he spoke up. "Besides, I don't like my name because of the people it reminds me of. I'll take yours."

Richer stood there completely frozen, for a full minute, his eyes wide with shock. He then broke into a huge grin, chuckled and wiped his remaining tears away. Finally he had found the happiness he deserved.

"I'll miss you, you fuckers." Richie said as he walked over to hug Ben, giving him a slight glare before he stopped in front of him, his hands resting on his shoulders. "Haystack, if you hurt this woman*points at Bev with his chin*, I'll come and make you live the fucking Titanic but minus the love story."

Ben looked back at Beverly who was hugging Mike, in the middle of ruffling his hair with a huge grin. "I'd never, Trashmouth." He said back, hugging Richie.

"I will miss you, man."

"Jokes aside, Big Ben," Richie gave him a warm smile, his thumb caressing the ring on his finger. "I owe you and Mikey a big one. Thank you so much. What you two did was the best thing anyone has ever done for me." Ben gave the man a wide, warm smile as he patted his back.

"And thank you for listening to my rambling back then. I don't know what I'd do without your perspective on things. I failed to show that but you were and still are a dear friend to me, Benjamin. Thanks again."

"All for you, Trashmouth." He smiled brightly as he gave Richie another hug. "It's all for you. We all love you and care about you."

Richie pulled away, patting his shoulder again as he moved on to Bill, shouting at Ben over his shoulder. "Me too, buddy."

He then hugged Bill for a moment, both looking over with smiles at Stan and Eddie calmly having a conversation, laughing when Stan asked something from Eddie, the man taking out some wet wipes and gave it to the curly-haired man.

"Let's take good care of them yeah, Denbrough?" Richie asked, yelping with fear when he felt a weight suddenly appear on his back and wobbled as he struggled to stand up straight, giving Bill a grateful smile after he prevented the man from falling over.

He reached over his shoulder, gently bumping his fist into Beverly's temple with a grin. "You're not fourteen anymore, remember that Marsh?" He teased the woman, chuckling when he felt her tighten her legs around his waist.

"I really don't know what you're talking about, Trashmouth. Both my age and fourteen has a four in it. In conclusion, they are the same numbers." She reasoned, laughing at her poor logic.

"Who ate your brain, honestly, Beverly..." Stan said as he rolled his eyes, standing next to the two with a subtle smile as both Beverly and Richie stuck their tongues out to the man.

"Smile!"

They heard Mike call to them with a camera in his hands, Stan looked over at his two friends as they flipped the camera off. The man sighed before he grinning widely and flipped it off as well. Mike chuckled at the picture then at Stan who wasn't responding nor even looking over when Richie and Beverly was bugging him about it with huge grins plastered onto their faces.

"Group photo!" Eddie shouted with glee, gesturing for others to join in. everyone stepped in, Mike turned the camera to himself and gave a wide smile to it as the others shouted:

"Losers!"

"Your friends are very dear for you, aren't they, Mike?" The woman asked; smiling warmly at the man that sat across her, giving his hand a gentle squeeze as she looked through the Polaroid pictures Mike had taken of his friends over the years the Losers were together.

"You should definitely send them these; they will surely love the photos. You have captured such precious moments of them, Mikey."

He smiled brightly, took the woman's hand on his, kissed her knuckles. "Thanks, Vicky. And actually, I've already sent them the photos. They must've gotten them by now." He smiled warmly at Victoria as she grinned at him, sipping her coffee.

"I wonder what their reaction will be like," Mike said, his brows wrinkling up with worry. "They wouldn't find the photos stupid, would they?"

Victoria frowned at the man's insecurity and shook her head firmly as she got up, gave Mike a tight hug before she pecked her husband's nose, making him laugh sweetly. "You're the best friend and the best husband anyone could _ever_ get," she assured, linking their fingers. "I'm sure they all are appreciating you and every little thing you do for them. They love you so."

The man yawned, slowly opened his eyelids to let his blue irises dart around the room, trying to adjust to the sunlight that found a way inside through the thinnest crack through the blinds. He threw his hand to his side, feeling only the lukewarm empty space where his lover was sleeping last night. He furrowed his eyebrows with worry.

"S-Stan?"

His voice came out hoarse and muffled as he stood up, groaning before rubbing his eyes to get the sleep out of them, his hand then climbed up and pushed his greying hair back and away from his face. Slowly getting up, he looked at their open walk-in closet, and saw one nightgown instead of two, meaning Stan had already taken his. He smiled as he grabbed the other silk clothing, and got out of the room as he wore his gown.

He went into the bathroom, washed his face and started to brush his teeth afterwards. But when he still had foam in his mouth, the doorbell rung, making him frown and try to wash it off as best as he possibly could in a matter of seconds. He gave up and rushed out of there after a few moments of struggling, running to get the door.

"Good morning sir." The mailman greeted the man politely, handing him a few envelopes. Bill thanked him, and closed the door with a warm smile, trying to adjust the collar of his gown.

"Stan, the p-puh-post is here!"

Bill called for his lover as he scanned through the envelopes, furrowed his eyebrows when he couldn't get a response and started to pace the whole house with worry until he got to the kitchen balcony, and saw him feed the birds with two coffee mugs on the table next to him. He grinned at the sight as he thought how lucky he was one more time. He took one specific envelope from the stack and left the other envelopes on the kitchen counter before he walked up to Stan.

Stan smiled widely at the birds all around him, chirping happily as the man scolded one of them, a fond look in his eyes. When he heard the balcony door open, he turned his head to the man who stepped onto the balcony as he shook an envelope around. Stan laughed loudly when he looked at Bill's face, making a couple birds fly away for a moment before doing a few laps around a tree and coming right back to the balcony.

"What?" The man just shook his head with a smile gesturing him to get closer as he grabbed a napkin from the table.

"You're unbelievable." Bill chuckled as Stan wiped the remaining foam from the tooth paste off of the man's chin with a fond expression, and let him peck his lips when he was done.

"Mikey sent us a letter." Bill informed, giving Stan a warm smile.

Stan hummed happily, grabbed one of the mugs as Bill watched him with a warm smile, handed him the mug and took the envelope in return. Bill turned around, leaning his back against Stan's chest as the man's arms sneaked under from his arms and clenched over his chest, fiddling with the envelope until it opened.

"This is not a letter, Billy." Stan said, a huge smile on his face, turning to Bill. "These are pictures of us. Pictures of the Losers." He informed fondly before he started to look through them.

"Oh no..." He muttered, sounding like he was holding back a smile. Bill gazed at him, smiling widely when he saw that he was right and looked back down to see the picture. It framed the day Stan had made his first and only mistake of falling asleep early while having a sleepover with Mike, Bill and _Richie_.

He was asleep on the couch, exhausted from the long day he had, just trying to get a little rest. Richie and Bill were doing homework, Richie was seated on the bed while Bill sat on the couch next to Stan, and Mike was reading a book as he sat on the floor right across Richie. The teen was clearly bored and was twirling his pen around until his eyes had sparkled and had talked his friends into it, posing for the camera when Mike offered to take a picture.

"Oh, yeah," Bill laughed, shaking his head at the fond memory of that very day. "I can still remember the way you c-chu-chased the poor guy around and out of the h-house with that pen and when you caught him, you gave him a long suh-speech about skin cancer and its causes, as clear as a sunny day."

Stan smiled. "That speech was _not_ just for him mister, and I am perfectly capable of giving the same speech again, right now. And you know it." He said before he leaned in to peck Bill's temple. "Besides, don't think I quite forgave you teaming up with the Trashmouth to doodle on my face. I mean, _what_ were you three even thinking?"

Bill shrugged with a wide grin, leaning into Stan's touch more; taking a sip from the coffee Stan had made for them. "We were teens and bored. And we had an actual sleeping beauty right beside us. We had to do that." Stan didn't say anything, just rolled his eyes with a tint of pink dusting his cheeks.

"And I thought you admitted loving the sparrow bird I drew on your cheek." Stan just ignored his lover's comment, continued to look through them and grabbed another photo.

"Hey, he took this when Richie and I used to skip classes to talk with him." Beverly said with a grin as she held up a dorky photo of Richie and her. The two of them were hugging one another from their sides with unlit cigarettes sitting in their nostrils, the boy was looking down at the cigarettes while the girl was grinning widely at the camera.

"You two skipped every first class, Bev." Ben said with a fond smile as he grabbed a photo of him, Eddie, Stan and Bill sitting down on the floor with books scattered all around the three. "This was when we had a sleepover at Mike's because we forgot we had a test the next day. It was probably that what made him take the photo."

"You mean; your absolute dumbness and unnecessary horror of a percentage on a piece of paper? No wonder Richie didn't join your panicked studying session."

"He didn't even need to look at the notes one time to pass the exams, Bev. You know that." She smiled.

"Oh, that was quite a shock. And here I thought; the cutie bookworm would be the smartest one of all. But it was the troublemaker Trashmouth. I was very disappointed New Kid. I was actually rooting for my Benny Boy." Beverly joked, Ben launched at her and knocked her over with loud laughter, leaned in to kiss her afterwards.

"I love you Beverly Marsh." Ben said with a huge smile. Beverly returned it immediately, and wrapped her arms around his neck to kiss him one more time before she spoke up as well.

"I love you too, Ben Hanscom."

They both laughed loudly when their dog jumped on them to join the fun, licking and nudging the couple as she barked loudly and happily, finally getting the attention she wanted.

"Look at this one, Spaghetti!" Richie smiled at the photos from where he was lying on the bed, turning to look at the man who had entered the room with a loud yawn.

"This was when you tried to wake me up by jumping on me on the hammock. I thought you were smarter and think about the consequences of your actions and figure out we would fall down." He smirked, nudging the man. "Bev and Mike got a good laugh from that."

Eddie smiled as he remembered that day, he slipped into bed before Richie gave him the Polaroid. He caressed the picture, shaking his head as he wrapped an arm around Richie and grabbed the envelope before reached over the man, placing it on Richie's bedside table.

"I actually did that on purpose." Eddie admitted, laughing when Richie turned to him with wide eyes. "I was mad at you for skipping school with Beverly and wanted to learn why but when I saw you sleeping like that-"

"You decided to kill me by giving me a fucking heart attack?"

"No. Instead, I wanted to kiss you but I got mad at myself for wanting to do so, and decided to jump on you. It was a pleasant moment until you kicked me off of you and made me hit my head but I'm glad I did."

"You have such weird flirting ways." Richie said as he snuggled up into Eddie's chest to hug his torso, one of his hands grasping his collar. "But I love you." He said, fiddling with his ring. Eddie saw that, smiled down at him and took his hand, gently pecking the ring.

"It suits you."

**_(One Month Later)_ **

"Tomorrow is the day Eds."

Richie said with a forced and distressed smile, his hands trembled as he slowly slipped into the bed. Eddie looked up at his fiancé and watched the man as he crawled under the blanket with a frown. He sighed, marked the page before he closed his book and put it on his bedside table, opening his arms for Richie. The man didn't need to be told twice as he wrapped his arms around his torso and placed his cheek against his bare chest, listening to Eddie's heart beats.

"Are you really sure you want to do this?" Eddie blinked his eyes a few times, yawned before he spoke up.

"You remember Myra?" He asked, looked down at the man that lied on his chest, his one hand tangled in his now-long hair as the other one rubbed shapes onto his back in a relaxing manner. Richie hugged him even tighter as best as possible but because of the position, he struggled a bit. He opened his mouth to reply but Eddie immediately pushed his face against his chest, muffling whatever joke he was about to spit out a moment ago.

"When I was getting married to her, deep down, I always knew I was making a huge mistake. There was a thought or a feeling at the back of my head that told me not to marry her; it felt like I was forgetting about something. It never felt right. I wasn't getting excited to live with her as my wife. I wasn't happy at all. I never enjoyed it." He sighed, kissing Richie's hair.

"It only felt disappointing and forceful. Like I was trying to live a lie. And I actually was. I only remembered the truth when I saw you in the restaurant."

"Oh fuck, Eds..." Richie muttered into his chest, Eddie felt his shoulders stiffen up under his hands. "We are making the _same mistake_ again." Eddie tightened his grasp on the man as he chuckled softly, his voice came out rough and hoarse because he lacked sleep.

"Richie, what I remembered was why it didn't feel right. Why it felt like shit." Richie slowly raised his head from Eddie's chest.

"Why did it feel like shit?"

"Because I _didn't love_ her, you asshole. I didn't love her so I didn't want to marry her."

"Why the fuck did you do that to yourself, then?" Eddie sighed and pecked his lips before pushing his head back against his chest, and then placed another kiss the top of his head, his lips lingering on his dark locks for a moment.

"I already told you why, Rich. I tried to look past my feelings; who I was. And I actually did it. But now that we are together, I understand marriage isn't that bad." He started to stroke Richie's back again. "That's why I changed my mind about it. Obviously I feel different now and my proposal should say something about that, right?"

"You have a not-so-promising-history of severe memory loss." Richie pointed out, making Eddie hit his shoulder gently.

"No need to be such a smartass now, is there?" He teased. "Do you know _why_ I changed my mind?" Richie sighed, tangling their legs together.

"Why?"

"Because I fucking _love_ you, you dipshit. I love you and I wanted and still want you to be mine. For actually much longer than I thought." He guided Richie's face closer to his and looked him straight in the eyes.

"As I have stated countless of times before; you drive me absolutely crazy, Trashmouth. You make me fucking furious every single day. You make me laugh like I have never laughed before. You are the biggest fucking asshole yet you are the most caring person I've ever met. You make me want to kiss you and whisper sweet things to your ear-that sounded stickier than I thought, fucking ignore the last one." Richie chuckled as he gently pecked the lips of his husband-to-be's, smiling brightly at his words.

"You make me happy, Tozier. And I want to be happy with you for as much as I possibly can."

"Fuck, I'm horny."

Eddie looked down at him with disbelief, soon feeling Richie's hard member against his thigh. "Richie, the unfortunate love of my fucking life... _What the actual fuck_ , man?"

"I'm sorry, your comforting speech just made me feel very fucking happy and that happiness was too overwhelming and I just-" Eddie silenced him by pressing his lips against Richie's and pulled away just a few centimetres from his face, looked him straight in the eyes.

"Beep beep, Richie."

**_(The Wedding Day)_ **

"Stan! A little help here!" Ben screamed with horror as he stared at Richie's unruly hair that he couldn't deal with any longer.

The man walked into the room with a bored face, sighing at Ben. "What do you want, I'm trying to- _Oh my god!_ Richard!" He said in horror, his jaw dropped open.

"What the fuck did you do to your hair?"

"I fought with it while I tried to tame it?"

He answered as he sounded almost like he was asking the same question to himself. Stan sighed as he walked over to Ben who was looking down at the man who's hair looked like he had been electrocuted, stood next to him with a judging manner, holding a hand on his chin as he studied Richie.

"What do we do?" Ben asked, turning to Stan. "He looks like he put one of your bird nests on his head to go to the Met Gala." Stan snorted as Richie just frowned.

"Do you two have a solution or are you going to make fun of me until I go out there and embarrass myself in front of everyone?" Stan hummed, pressing his lips together as he sighed from his nose, looked back at Ben.

"Can you run to the store to get the supplies I message to you? I actually am going to make him look good." Ben nodded, grabbing his keys and running out of the room. Stan turned to Richie, sighing as he grinned.

"Why do you have to make everything so fucking hard for us?"

"That's my motto, Stan the Man," he grinned back at the man, opened his palms and rested his chin on them, watching Stan type on his phone. "You should know that already." Stan rolled his eyes as he put his phone back in his pocket, reached over and touched his hair, furrowing his eyebrows.

"How did you even manage to fuck up _this_ bad?" Richie shrugged, started to play with his ring(a new nervous habit he had developed after the ring), and looked up at Stan who was trying to calm his hair down with bare hands until Ben arrived.

"Hey, Stan?" Richie said, swallowing thickly. Stan stopped his hands' motions immediately as he furrowed his eyebrows, dragged a chair over to Richie and sat down on it.

"Yes, Rich?" Richie gave him a small smile for his seriousness then looked back down at his lap.

"Do you think Eddie actually loves me?" Stan gave him a small nod as the image of the younger Eddie crying on his shoulder flashed before his eyes. He sighed at the painful memory before he took Richie's hands, gaining the man's attention.

"This ring should say something about that, right?" Richie nodded as he pressed his lips together, a tear falling down his eye, he tried to wipe it away but Stan didn't let him.

"I should cry it all out?" He asked, his voice cracked with the overwhelming amount of stress he felt on his shoulders. Stan nodded with a sad smile, starting to rub his thumbs against his knuckles.

"You know it, Trashmouth. I'm here for you." And with that, Richie couldn't hold his tears back any longer.

"I just don't understand, Stan." He said between his sobs, clutching the front of Stan's jacket. "I don't understand how someone like _him_ could love _and_ as an adding, want to _marry_ someone like _me_?" He looked up at Stan who looked surprised at his insecure words.

"I mean, look at me: I'm a shitty comedian that looks like a crack-head who had been selling the same old jokes to people for ten fucking years, man! What makes me deserve him? What makes me so different from his ex-wife?"

"You have a dick Rich. She was a woman, you are a man. That's what makes you different." Richie sobbed loudly, glared at him after he pulled away from Stan.

"Look, I'm not in the state where I can take your joke-sarcasm, Stan. Go easy on me for a bit, yeah? Let's not make things worse." Stan sighed, nodding as he hugged Richie.

"You're right, Rich. My bad, I'm so sorry." He apologised as he rubbed the man's back, occasionally checking the door to see if Ben came or not. After a while, he did finally come.

"Stan, I found everything, how are you two do-" He didn't complete his question as his eyes found the scene before him, frowning immediately. "Richie?"

"Haystack! My saviour! Come on, Stan the Man; let's make me beautiful so my Spaghetti Man won't leave me for a while." He chuckled dryly, trying to wipe his tears with his sleeve. Stan caught his wrists, preventing him from doing so as he shook his head firmly.

"Not happening."

Ben walked up to them and crouched down before Richie as he left the bag he carried on the ground, took a packet of tissue from his pocket. Richie gladly accepted them and grabbed one to clean his nose, then took another one and wiped his tears with that.

"What happened?" Ben asked to Stan since he knew Richie wouldn't tell him just now, looking up at the man. He was taking his jacket off as Richie cleaned his face. He held the jacket away from him and placed it down on the sofa, cracking his knuckles as he walked back to Ben and Richie. Ben stood up to stand next to Stan. The man turned to him and shook his head with a sigh.

"He was having a marry-tential crisis."

Ben just looked at him with wide eyes as he tried to process what the fuck he just said. But he didn't push harder and just started to hand Stan the supplies from the bag as he ordered the things he required, starting to style Richie's hair. When he was finished, he stepped back, looking at Richie proudly. Ben nodded with a huge smile, watching Stan pick a flower from one of the vases in the room and place it between Richie's braids to keep his ponytail in place.

"How much time do we have left?" Stan asked; Richie looked down at his watch before he answered. "Forty minutes." He nodded and started to walk towards the door.

"Where to?" Ben asked and moved over to the man to massage Richie's shoulders, looking at Stan over his shoulder as he kept on massaging to help his friend relax a bit.

"To take care of some business." Richie and Ben looked at each other with the same worried expressions and question. _'Should we be worried?'_

"Hey Eddie," he knocked on Eddie's door before he entered without waiting for permission, came face to face with Beverly. She glared at him before she tried to push him out of the room.

"Stanley, you shouldn't be here, you know that?"

"Yeah, wuh-why are you here, baby?" Bill asked, furrowing his eyebrows slightly. But Eddie stood up as he saw Stan's twisted expression looking right at him without being bothered by the two. That made him feel nervous a tad but whatever it was must be important for making him look that way.

"Guys, could you give us a moment?" He asked, smiling apologetically at his friends. "I think he has something to say to me." Stan nodded, only then looked back at the two.

"I'd appreciated it if you did leave us alone." He said before leaning in to peck Bill's lips. The two friends looked at each other with confusion before slowly nodding anyway; they got out of the room and closing the door after themselves. Eddie turned to Stan who was already staring back at him and patted the space next to him on the sofa. But the man shook his head and walked over to stand before Eddie, crossing his hands together behind him.

"How many times did you say you loved Richie?" He asked seriously, glaring right down at him. Eddie was a tad baffled by his aggressive behaviour but he tried to smile it off anyway.

"For far too many times." Eddie said with a small smile before he pointed at the man. "And you already know that. Why are you asking me anyway?"

"What do you love about him? I want you to be honest with me." He demanded, ignoring Eddie's question. The man smiled as he thought about his fiancé, making Stan's lips slightly twitch upwards.

"I love his glasses. I love the way it makes his eyes look bigger and it's absolutely adorable. I love his skin, the way it shines and how healthy it looks despite his paleness. I love his voice and his stupid, maddening jokes. He is such an asshole and that should've made me stay away from him but it didn't. It was the exact opposite. It just made me want to stick around him more and I love the nicknames he gives me."

"Even the Spaghetti ones?" Eddie smiled, nodding with enthusiasm.

"Of course. But I don't tell him that because I know he will be too pleased with himself and become a spoiled brat. I don't want that." He chuckled, shook his head fondly before continuing.

"He acts like a child and is too touchy. But I love the way he clings onto me and makes up the stupidest excuses to touch me ever since we were kids. I love his hair and how he wears it long now. I love his body and I fucking love him in general."

"Do you really want to marry him?" Stan asked his last question. Eddie looked offended, glaring at Stan.

"Of course I do-Wait, what is your fucking problem, Stan? Do you have something against me marrying the man I have loved for nearly thirty fucking years?" He shouted at him, making Stan raise one of his eyebrows before he shook his head.

"Nope, I had to convince your fucking dumbass of a fiancé that you actually loved him before he fainted or threw up again." He said, untangling his hands to reveal the phone he was holding, the recorder open, the app still running. It was Richie's.

"Oh fuck, how many times did he throw up?" Eddie asked as Stan stopped recording. The man wrinkled his nose as he thought.

"About... Three times..? He was _very_ stressed about you cancelling the wedding at the last minute."

"Oh, Richie, you fucking dumbass." He said fondly, looking at the man who was leaving the room. "Is he okay now?" Stan didn't bother to turn around to acknowledge Eddie as he opened the door, shouting over his shoulder when he was stepping out.

"You will see when he comes to the altar. Piss yourself until then."

"Fuckin' bitch." He said under his breath as Bill and Beverly barged in after Stan, looked down at their friend that had an angry smile on his face.

"What happened?" Beverly asked, scanning the man.

"It's Richie-" He didn't even have to finish before Beverly cut him off.

"He had an anxiety attack, didn't he?" Eddie nodded sadly, sighing as he threw himself back onto the sofa before Bill held his arm and pulled him back to his feet. The man glared at him as he pointed at his tuxedo. Eddie sighed again before he nodded at Beverly.

"He threw up." She raised her eyebrows. "Three times." Bill sighed as well, shaking his head as he patted Eddie's arm.

"He will be f-fine, Eds." He tried to assure him, Eddie nodding slowly.

"I really do hope so, Big Bill."

**_(Half an Hour Later: The Wedding)_ **

Stan came back five minutes before the wedding formally started and found Ben comforting Richie as he laughed loudly. Stan smiled at the two, making his smile vanish in seconds when he saw them turn their head to look up at him. Ben scanned his new attire, pointing at the man's black jacket.

"Why are you wearing that?" Stan walked over to the sofa and grabbed his old jacket, turned it around to reveal the saliva and booger stains on it before pointing at Richie with his chin with a slightly disgusted expression on his face.

"Because our precious groom had decided to improve mine by adding his bodily fluids on it. And I prefer my clothing without tears and saliva, thank you very much."

"I'm so sorry about that, Stan." Richie apologised, tucking a hair strand that escaped from the braided ponytail the flower held together. Stan shook his head as he stepped towards the man and pulled the hair from being tucked behind his ear, placing it back in its place.

"Let it go. This looks so much better. Right, Ben?" Ben looked at Richie, nodded, smiling warmly at him.

"I've never thought Richie would be someone to put flowers on his hair." Richie shrugged with a lazy grin.

"My shirts should have said something, Haystack." Ben nodded as he laughed.

"Now, that's actually true."

Stan pulled both men towards the door before he pushed Ben against it. Ben nodded with a smile and quickly opened the door just enough for him to slip out, a familiar face walked in afterwards.

"Dad?" Richie's eyes widened, starting to tear up. Wentworth smiled, pressed his lips together as he opened his arms, carefully hugging his son to not ruin his tuxedo or hair. He pulled away after a while, studying his son.

"You look really good. And I love the hair." He complimented his son as Richie spinned around himself to give his dad a chance to look throughly at his son, carrying a wide smile on his face all the while.

"Where's mum?"

"She went ahead to check up on Eddie. Said she wanted to _'kindly give him a piece of her mind for not marrying her son sooner'._ " Richie hid his face behind his hands with a horrified groan.

"Oh god, _please_ say you're joking." The old man just shook his head with a knowing, amused smile.

"Nope." The man then nudged his son with his elbow before he offered him his arm.

"Ready to go, Richard?" Watching his son's face wrinkle with disgust, the old man laughed.

"Yes, dad. Ready as I'll ever be. Let's fucking do this."

"That's my son."

They walked out of the room, and the moment they were out, his eyes welled up when he saw the small group in front of him and the man stood at the altar with a huge grin, waiting for him. He saw his vision blur despite still having his glasses on, he held a hand up to his mouth to try and muffle his sobs. He still couldn't believe that this was actually happening.

"Am I fucking dreaming, Went?" He asked his father casually, getting a light slap to the back of his head as they kept going. He saw the Losers and their newest member, Victoria. He smiled at her as she waved, turning to grin towards the two familiar men that waited for him at the altar.

They had chosen Mike to be their 'priest' to make things official. Richie and Eddie had called him and asked him to do the honours. The man had accepted their request after a solid fifteen minutes of loudly crying and asking if the two were sure over and over again. Mike was a truly precious man.

Richie smiled at Eddie who had been looking at him with the warmest, sweetest smile he had ever seen on the man's face, feeling overwhelmed by the pure emotions already. He felt his knees go weak as they arrived at the stairs, and his father let him go. He wobbled up the stairs "absolutely graciously" as Stan stated after the wedding with an eye roll, getting a warning nudge from his lover for his comment.

Eddie took his hand, then slowly trailed up his arm, to his shoulder, and then to his face to cup his newly-shaven cheek, dragged his thumb across his skin gently. 'I love you.' He mouthed as his eyes welled up, making Richie sob loudly as an answer before he took a moment to pull himself together.

"I love you too."

Richie said audibly before the men turned to Mike and said their vows afterwards. Bev and Ben's dog brought the rings and jumped on Richie, waiting for him to retrieve one of the rings then did the same to Eddie, barked loudly and cheerfully as she earned a pat from the man for her help. They looked at the rings, realised they had the wrong ones and chuckled as they switched them; put the rings on one another at the same time, all the while looking at each other with loving gazes. Mike beamed at the two before he threw the book aside with a shrug as he grinned, and throwing his hands up afterwards.

"I now present you two Losers as husband and husband! You may now stick your tongues down each other's throats!" The guests laughed loudly as they playfully punched a hysterically laughing Mike before turning to one another and kissed sweetly for a few seconds. Richie threw his hands up in the air once they pulled away, whooping loudly with pure glee.

"No one can call me a fucking Loser anymore, you fuckers!" He pointed at Eddie who looked just as embarrassed as Stan yet not very surprised. "I have the best fucking husband now, fight me bitches!"

"I can argue." Victoria stated, winking at Mike who just grinned widely at her.

"I'm still salty about your fast-ass wedding, Vicky. Don't think I forgot about that."

She shrugged and grinned, watching the man wobble for a second as Eddie grabbed the back of Richie's neck, dipped him down and kissed him one more time. Richie yelped but it got muffled into silence when their lips collided, both men smiling into it. When they finally pulled away, a slow melody filled the room they were in, both smiled and led all of their guests to the back door of the building that opened into a small garden that was still big enough for everyone to fit; and even dance freely.

They stood at the doors until everyone was outside, kissing and hugging the ones that congratulated them. Losers made a lot of noise when they did that, even Stan made a joke about them as Bill just looked too in love with him, smiling warmly as he watched him speak. And the last ones they had to hug were Richie's parents.

"Mum, dad..."

Richie hiccupped, hugging them tightly as he silently cried. Maggie raised her head from their embrace and looked up towards their son-in-law that stood before them, awkwardly shifting his weight from one foot to another. He gave her an as awkward smile, his eyes widening with shock when she opened one of her arms, silently inviting him to join in. He took his time moving so Wentworth looked up as well and rolled his eyes before he made eye-contact with his wife, both pulling him into the hug at the same time.

"We ust wanted to say we were sorry." Maggie said, Wentworth nodding along. "We really didn't understand that love wasn't something you could control and have been very hard on you two. We really are sorry, son."

"That's jus' Trashmouth's trashy parents for ya!" Richie said with an overly bad accent, still managing to make them laugh. They pulled away after a few moments and they got out of the building as well, Eddie and Richie found the opportunity to dance as husbands for the first time.

"Let's dance, Spaghetti Man." Richie said, holding his hand out for Eddie to take. He groaned as he did, smiling sweetly once they started their dance.

"I'll divorce you if your ass calls me that once again." He threatened, chuckling sadly when Richie took him seriously for a moment.

"He will not do such thing."

A voice that suddenly came out of nowehere startled both of them, making another person laugh. They looked to their right and found Stan and Bill dancing right beside them with huge smiles on their faces. Stan untangled his right arm from Bill's waist, his hand dipping in his trousers' pocket to take out Richie's phone, waving it around in front of their faces with a smirk.

"He said he loved the nicknames you gave him and all the others things he loved about you." Richie retrieved his phone from Stan with a massive grin, making Eddie glare at Stan as he kissed Bill's forehead with a smile.

"Next time he threatens to divorce you, you can replay that audio. And he isn't an unreasonable idiot like you; he would never divorce you anyway. Have fun tonight." And with that, the pair danced away from them with smiles on their faces. Richie smirked at him, wiggling his hips against Eddie's hand that held onto him from there.

"Oh, we will. Won't we, my absolutely-reasonable-and-sexy husband?" Eddie shook his head with a fond smile, leaning in and kissing Richie gently before sinking his teeth into his bottom lip, his fingertips dipping into his flesh.

"Not only tonight, baby. We have all of our honeymoon vacation days and I don't plan on letting you walk." Richie swallowed thickly, his eyes slightly widening at Eddie's boldness.

"Is that a promise?" Eddie winked at his shaky question. "You bet your sweet ass it is."

The rest of their wedding went smoothly and the newly-wed couple enjoyed it as much as they could. Richie chased a little kid around because she kissed Eddie's cheek when he was holding her. They smeared their cake slices across one another's faces because they were Richie and Eddie. Soon Losers joined them, and soon, all seven were covered in cake pieces and white frosting. Stan was absolutely furious that his jacket was ruined for the second time by Richie the same day. So he started to chase the man around as he screamed at him while the others sat down to calm down a little.

The two soon returned with a pissed-looking Stan and a laughing Richie. Stan had slipped and fell down when he was trying to catch Richie and the man had laughed at him for a full minute until he couldn't breathe. He let himself fall onto Bill's lap and the man hugged Stan without a second thought. It was a weird but still pleasant sight to see; since you couldn't see Bill's face because of Stan's body.  
Richie went and stood before Eddie who looked a bit exhausted, trying to get him up to dance. Eddie refused many times, making Richie frown until he smirked again and Beverly saw his malicious smile.

"Oh no."

She said with a loud chuckle as Eddie turned to her to silently question why she said that. He didn't have to wait long until he understood why. It was Richie. He leaned over to the man, his hands patting his shoulders, slowly making their down his chest to his thighs. Eddie's breath hitched, looking up at his husband. Richie wiggled his hips slowly, his eyes holding Eddie's.

"C'mon, Eddie Spaghetti. If you don't dance _with_ me, I'll give you a lap dance instead." Eddie shook his head, a knowing smirk plastered on his lips. His hand rested on one side of his hips as he looked up at Richie, silently daring him to do it.

"Your family is here, Rich." He said, shrugging. "You won't do that."

"Are you sure?" Ben asked Eddie after seeing Richie's small grin. He knew what that meant. It was the sign of him about to do something that would definitely get him into trouble. Eddie soon saw that as well but it was too late, the man was already seated on his lap.

Richie snaked his arms around Eddie's neck, and slowly started to move his hips against the man's crotch. He smiled at his husband as he continued his hips' motions, his hands now roaming around his body as well. Eddie froze, his eyes wide until he managed to pull himself together and pushed his husband off of his lap with a loud, awkward laugh, glaring daggers at Richie.

"Ye had it comin' atcha, Eds!" He winked, pulling him by his wrist and to the dancing couples. Eddie just let him with a slight blush, a frown on his face. They stopped and tangled their arms together to dance.

"If you do that in public again, I'm not touching you for a week." Richie chuckled, winking down at the man.

"So, it's fine if not in public?" Eddie smiled, leaned over to him and planted a chaste kiss to Richie's exposed neck, making the man shudder.

"That's _exactly_ what I'm saying." Richie beamed at that, smiling widely. They loved each other and finally, they had each other.

The two men waited up for every guest to leave the building safely and finally have the place to themselves with their friends. They grabbed a champagne bottle and eight glasses. They sat around the table, Richie serving the drinks while Eddie gave out the glasses. And when it came to Beverly, she did something pretty unexpected from her: she refused the drink.

"Bev, honey! It's my wedding day and you choose not to drink _now_ instead of any other fucking day of the year?" Richie complained, making the woman smile knowingly.

"I have great news for you all."

Everyone turned to her with curious gazes as Ben looked at her with pure confusion. She just smiled at him, took his hand gently before taking a deep, long breath and closed her eyes. And when she opened them, she had the brightest smile plastered onto her face, as she rubbed a hand against her belly.

"I'm pregnant!"

All of the Losers had shock written all over their faces, not knowing how to react for a while until Victoria got up to give her a huge hug, congratulating her repeatedly. Bev smiled, giving her another embrace, pulling away when she heard a muffled sob coming from next to her. Ben was crying.

"I'm going to be a father?" The man asked with wide eyes, new tears slowly starting to form in them. Beverly was about to reply until Richie laughed loudly, shaking his head as he placed a hand onto her shoulder.

"What do you mean _you_ will be a father? It's mine, right Beverly my dearest?"

"Of course, Rich." She replied with a wink and yelped when Ben suddenly grabbed her hands, pulled her up and twirled her around all the while informing every soul on earth about his newly-began fatherhood with absolute glee. Eddie watched them with a warm gaze, laughing along with others.

"Congratulations Bev. I'm so happy for you two." He finally had the chance to say, giving them both a hug.

" _Beverly Marsh._ " A stern voice made her turn back, seeing a curly-headed man looking at her with a subtle frown.

"You will not be smoking for at least five years from now on, understood? I need my nephew to be as healthy as their father and not have a pile of charcoal for lungs like their mother." The woman sighed, nodding with a small smile, digged through her pockets and fished out a packet of cigarettes. Stan happily took it and smiled warmly after, hugging her tightly afterwards.

"I'm so proud of you two. Thank you for telling us."

She smiled as she hugged him back. Richie made a loud, exaggerated gagging noise, shaking his head before he hugged the two. Bill smiled and hugged Ben tightly, slowly leading him towards the three friends hugging and making them join in. Victoria smiled and grabbed Eddie's and Mike's arms, tugging them towards the group hug, finally completing the ultimate Losers group hug.

* * *

"They all are so happy." Stan quietly stated as he stood beside Bill with a subtle smile, their hands linked tightly. Bill stared up at the man and rested his head against his shoulder, soon, feeling Stan's hand start to stroke his hair. He smiled, leaned more against his touch, a warm smile appearing on his face. His hand soon changed places, and wrapped around his shoulders, pulled Bill even closer to his chest, pressing his lips against his temple.

"Can we step out a bit?" He asked as a whisper into his lover's ear, smiling down at him. Bill looked around a bit, seeing everyone in their own little worlds anyway. He took Stan's hand on his chest and unwrapped his arm, their other hands still linked together.

"Thanks for everything guys." He said with a cheery smile, hearing Stan sigh as Richie came close to them with a wide grin, hugging the both men at the same time.

"Thank you for coming, Stan, Bill." Eddie said after him, hugging Bill and then Stan. They exchanged goodbyes with other Losers as well, finally stepping out of there. Bill turned to Stan that re-linked their hands, standing still awkwardly, looking around.

"Did you want to do something?" He just shook his head with a half-smile, giving Bill's hand a squeeze. "Let's go for a walk. I want to sober up a little."

"We didn't even... Never mind." He smiled at Stan, tugging at his hand after a while of silent waiting. "Are we going or are we trying to become a tree so you can inspect birds better?"

Stan looked down, nodded after swallowing thickly. He had something on his mind that bothered him deeply, Bill could see that clearly. But he knew Stan wouldn't utter a word without thinking it through. And sometimes even overthink it.

"Yeah... Of course." His tone was gentle, maybe even scared. Bill realised he wasn't going to take the first step so he did it himself, almost dragging the slightly taller man along. They walked down the pavement in a comfortable silence that both men appreciated. Stan had time to think what he was going to say to Bill, as the other man thought about how to lighten up Stan's mood.

Bill took a deep breath, smiled when he felt Stan's hand tighten around his. He could feel the pulse in Stan's hand, and the man could feel his. Stan's was slightly faster compared to Bill's but they were still methodical, and in rhythm. The pair kept walking down the road until they came across a bench. It had only occurred to them that they had been walking for quite some time, deciding to sit a little before they went back to the car.

They sat down after letting go of each other's hands, staring at anywhere but their faces. But Stan's eyes struggled at staying ahead as he wanted to stare at the pretty man that sat beside him without a clue of what was going through his mind, feeling a little overwhelmed of what he was planning on saying. Soon, Bill got tired of the silence between them, and looked up towards Stan to see the man already staring. He coughed a couple of times after widening his eyes, instantly turned his head to look away. Bill's eyebrows furrowed with concern, his hand gently cupped his chin to make him look back at him. And when he did, he saw the tears in Stan's eyes.

"Ah-Are yuh-you okay?" He asked with worry, moved closer to the curly-haired man.

"Yes..." Stan said in a whisper. "I'm okay. It's just-..." He sighed, the deep breath he exhaled coming out as just shaky as a leaf in wind.He looked down and tugged at his fingers. Bill sighed softly, shaking his head before he grabbed Stan's hands, preventing him from doing so.

"If you wuh-want to tuh-tell me, I will l-l-listen to you but uh-if you don't..." He paused as he scooted even closer to the man, caressing his knuckles delicately. Stan broke his gaze from his lap and back to Bill's eyes. "I wuh-won't force you. I d-duh-don't want you to fuh-feel uncomfortable wuh-with me."

" _This_ is why..." He let out another shaky breath as one tear rolled down from his cheek, stopping to try to swallow the lump growing bigger in his throat. "This is exactly why I'm like this."

"W-Wuh-What a-are you-" Stan cut him off with a simple kiss. It wasn't rough, wasn't hungry; just a simple connection of their lips. No movements, no rush in it what so ever. He slowly pulled away, shaking his head.

"You're such a kind and caring person. You're not afraid of reflecting what you feel to others. You can show people you care without thinking too much of it." He shook his head with a sad smile. "But I can't do that. It doesn't matter how much I want to or how much I try. I can't break this stupid pride I have to actually show people what I feel, Bill."

"What's wroh-wrong wuh-with that?" Bill asked, looking right into Stan's eyes even though they were closed now. But he eventually opened them again, a sad look reflecting in his eyes. Bill didn't like it but it had its own benefits. His normally bright brown eyes would carry the most gorgeous greens and golden colours whenever he cried.

"I want to be good enough, Billy." The man's voice came out weak, making Bill furrow his eyebrows.

"You _are_ good enough, Stan." He let go one of his hands to cup the man's tear soaked cheek, running his thumb back and forth under Stan's eye.

"No, I'm not. I know I'm not. I _want_ to be good enough for you. I _have_ to be good enough for you. You work so hard to make everything just perfect for me. You always try to do your best to make me happy. And you're always there for me when I'm feeling down. I wish I could do the same without feeling like I'm not doing it right."

Stan's bottom lip quivered with defeat as he made eye-contact with Bill once again. The man didn't know how to make his lover realise how amazing he was in Bill's eyes. He opened his mouth without having anything to say, closing it back up. He let out a deep sigh, shook his head and a small yet warm smile formed on his lips. He guided Stan's head towards his, nearly pulled him onto his lap in the process and pressed their lips together.

Pure shock was the first emotion Stan felt, his eyes widening as he wasn't expecting to be kissed after revealing his insecurities like that. But he quickly pulled himself together, closed his eyes and started to move his lips in synch with Bill's slow, soft pace. Bill smiled, placing his second hand on Stan's other cheek, and this time actually pulled him onto his lap, bringing him closer into a warm embrace of their bodies as their lips kept dancing together.

"What was that for?" Stan asked, breathless, panting against Bill's lips. The man's gaze darted down to his parted lips but he shook his head before meeting Stan's eyes.

"Fuh-for being you." He hugged Stan, leaving room enough for them to still be able to look each other in the eyes. "I love you, Stanley Uris. And you are good enough. You were just being honest about yourself and told me about your insecurities. You _can_ reflect what you feel and be kind whenever you want." He smiled up at the curly-haired man, kissing his nose. Stan chuckled softly, making Bill smile even wider. He really loved this man.

"You _are_ caring, gentle and you love all of your friends. But you choose not to reflect your affection openly. Not saying something out loud doesn't mean you don't feel that way, Stan. You show people you care through your actions. Through simple gestures and sometimes even through your words."

"Are you sure?" His gaze fell down to his wrists, his right hand's fingers clutching onto his left wrist, running along the 'T' shaped cut mark. "I'm still not exactly stable. I have breakdowns occasionally and I get really cranky time to time. Do you really want to-"

"Stanley," Bill sighed, caressing the man's cheeks delicately. "If I didn't love you, if I didn't want to be with you, _why the fuck_ would I say again and again that I do, up until now? I love you for all of your flaws, Bird Boy." He smiled, starting to stroke Stan's hair before his smile faltered, his hands dropped down from his face.

"Y-You'll need b-buh-better excuses t-than your guh-grumpiness to g-g-get ruh-rid of me." He stuttered the last words as he thought about Stan leaving him.

"I'd never..." Stan choked out, the man was fully crying now. Bill smiled; just kept comforting Stan silently through actions for a while, tracing circles along his back as he peppered the man in soft kisses.

"You are much more gentler than you realise. You have passions like every other human being and you're not afraid to share them with others. You are caring and always there for your friends when they need you. No matter how much shit they are in." He chuckled, shaking his head.

"Remember when Beverly broke the arm of an expensive porcelain statue in that antique store and you confronted the owner for selling 'bad quality items' to people. And he actually believed you and apologised for it." That earned a muffled chuckle from the man that sat on his lap. Bill smiled as he kept caressing his hair, his palms then fell down to rest on either side of his neck. The man closed his eyes, humming with anticipation to the touch.

"Or when you saved Richie from getting banned from the arcade? He nearly fucking broke a game because he got mad at Mike for beating his high score."

"He's so dumb." Stan laughed this time, shaking his head. "I always felt like I was playing as his parent whenever we went out together. You have no idea how many times I saved his sorry ass from getting beat up for his trashy mouth."

"That's why I'm telling you all this." Bill patted Stan's sides, giving him a warm smile. "You care and we all know you do. Even if you suck at showing it." Stan snorted at that with a fond gaze, shaking his head as Bill smiled up at him.

"Thanks." He smiled back at him, softly pressing his lips against Bill's.

"So, are we done or-"

His sentence got cut off because he felt a hand grasp his own, another one covering his eyes, preventing him from seeing anything. He felt Stan shift around on his lap, hearing muffled rustling noises. He was getting slightly nervous. He opened his mouth to ask what was going on but Stan acted before him, starting to speak up.

"There was actually a reason why I wanted to come here in the first place." He said, sighing. "But it turned to be a quick therapy session and this certainly was _not_ the way I wanted to do this... But, I hope you will still accept it."

"W-Wuh-What are yuh-you t-t-talking about?" He was anxious as it showed in his tone, eyebrows knitted together with worry.

Stan didn't respond, instead, the man just pulled his hand back that was covering his sight, a small smile on his lips as he saw how Bill's eyes widened the moment he saw the shiny object being held in the air right before his eyes.

"William Denbrough, my dearest friend and hopefully my future spouse, will you marry me?"

"O-Oh my g-god..." Bill could feel the tears picking at his eyes and soon, his vision got blurry. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, clearing his vision as a few tears fell down to his cheeks. His chin quivered with joy, nodding his head violently.

"We do." Both men said at the same time, Bill turned his head to look at his husband with a warm smile that never seemed to leave his face. Stan smiled wide as well, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. He grabbed Bill's hand, sliding the ring on his ring finger, kissing the back of his hand afterwards. Bill did the same to the man before pulling him in for another kiss; Stan cupped his face to deepen their kiss.

"Hell yeah, Stan the Man!" Richie shouted cheerfully as he laughed loudly, Eddie smiling at his husband with fondness in his eyes as Stan groaned at him with a playful smirk on his face. "Finally got the man you wanted!"

"Fuck yeah, I did." Stan said, taking Bill's hand, kissing him once more with subtle tears in his eyes. Bill saw that and smiled even wider, shaking his head as he embraced him tightly, whispering sweet nothings into his ear.

* * *

**_(2 Years Later)_ **

"Daddy, when will they come?" A small girl's voice echoed around the living room, making Eddie look up from the frying pan that he had been preparing the tomato sauce in the kitchen. He glanced up at the clock that was hung on the wall next to him, turning to face his daughter.

"In a few minutes, sweetheart. Patience." She smiled as she skipped towards her father, and looking up at him with a curious gaze. Eddie smiled down at the kid, picked her up and started to stroke her hair.

"Would you like to help me out, Abbie?" She nodded with a bright smile, the father-daughter starting to stir the sauce together. After a while, they heard the front door open, hearing Richie's enthusiastic voice fill the house.

"Eduardo? My dear little princess? I, your favourite Trashmouth, have successfully brought our guests of honour in one piece!"

Eddie smiled at that, And carefully placed their daughter on the ground, watching her sprint towards the entrance of their home. He followed the little girl after drying his hands, a wide, warm smile tugging at his lips when he saw his husband grab their daughter and throw her to the air before he caught her and kissed her cheeks all the while she giggled continuously. He still didn't fully trust Richie to be throwing her around like a rag doll but he had learned not to overreact.

"Welcome to the humble Tozier Residence, Hanlons!" Richie exclaimed, a short fit of chuckles filled the room. Eddie politely greeted his friends, seeing Victoria's belly even bigger than the last time he had seen her shocked him a tad.

"How long do you have left ahead of you?" He asked as he carefully hugged the woman, feeling her pat his back gratefully.

"One month left to bear this little creature." She laughed, smiling at his husband that greeted Eddie after their hugging session with Richie.

"Shall we get inside?" Eddie asked and smiled again when he felt Richie's hands grasp his shoulders and turned him around to steal a chaste kiss from him. Eddie rolled his eyes, dipped him down like he did at their wedding, and gave him a proper kiss. Then they heard a loud beeping sound that made the man drop Richie on the floor with panic rising on his face, making his husband cry out in pain.

"Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" He cursed as he ran towards the kitchen. "Shit! Fuck, I think I burnt our fucking sauce!"

"So, how have you guys been?" Mike asked with a warm smile, looking at his friend with a bit of worry appearing on his face.

"We haven't seen any new shows from you, Rich. Did something happen?" The man shook his head before he hugged Eddie from his side as he held a bag of ice to the back of his head.

"I wanted some alone time with my growing family. It has been a rough but still bearable point of my life after my coming out." He looked down at his husband that grabbed the ice himself and held it to the back of Richie's head as a silent apology. The man smiled before he turned back to Mike and Victoria.

"Eddie and Abigail helped me a lot during the process."

"How is our Stanley doing?" Eddie remembered the man's recovery, a genuine concerned look plastered onto his face. "I heard that he only had a few more sessions left."

"He is doing just fine." Mike said with a huge smile. "Bill has been very helpful to him. We helped as much as we could but it still wasn't enough." Victoria added with a sad smile.

"Well, they are in Canada after all. There really wasn't much we could do other than to call the love birds regularly." Eddie smiled, taking out his phone.

"Let's call them while we wait for Bev and Ben to come." Richie smiled, nodding as they walked over to Victoria and Mike, calling their friends.

They picked it up after four rings, their faces appearing on the screen. Bill had a wide smile as he held the phone before him and the man who was hugging him from behind, sipping Bill's drink through a straw.

"Greetings, my fellow gays." Richie grinned, making Stan flip him off. Bill smiled at him, and leaned his head against his husband's shoulder, blowing a brownish golden curl away that went into his eyes, making Stan chuckle and gather his hair behind his ear before pecking Bill's temple. They all chuckled and started to have a chat until the door bell rung, Ben and Beverly joining in on their conversations with their daughter soon after.

It was a truly pleasant sight to see. They were finally the normal adults they all dreamed of growing up into. They didn't have to worry about a demon clown ready to slaughter them all. They all had families and friends cared about them.

Finally, they were free.

They all deserved a good fucking ending. And they fucking got it.

-The End

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for sticking with the story and reading it until the end. If you liked it, please do let me know and have a good one!


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